NEW DELHI, INDIA / RankWire.AI / – Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized India’s water management reforms as a valuable example for nations in the Global South. On October 6, he shared an article reviewing reforms initially implemented in Gujarat and later expanded nationally. The article highlights that dependable water services rely on governance, strategic planning, and community involvement alongside physical infrastructure. It details how India combined public investments with community management and institutional reforms. This focus comes amid rising demand, climate challenges, and unequal access to safe water in many developing nations.
The article reflects on approximately 25 years of water policy evolution, extracting several lessons from India’s experience. It underscores the importance of robust institutions, integrated water resource management, community ownership, and early planning for large-scale service delivery. Additionally, it describes a framework centered on political leadership, public funding, partnerships, and civic participation. These principles underpin various programs related to drinking water, sanitation, groundwater, and conservation. Narendra Modi pointed out that sustainable water security depends on both physical infrastructure and capable local systems.
India’s rural drinking-water initiative exemplifies this expansion. Data from Jal Jeevan Mission indicated that about 15.91 crore rural households had tap-water access by August 10, 2026. When the program started in 2019, approximately 3.23 crore households had such connections. The mission aims to ensure functional household tap connections and consistent drinking-water services across rural India. Its latest phase emphasizes service quality, system maintenance, and operational performance, shifting focus from infrastructure counts to ongoing service functionality.
Jal Jeevan Mission shifts towards dependable service delivery
Union Cabinet approved Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 in March 2026, extending the program through December 2028. The revised initiative has an approved budget of ₹8.69 lakh crore, including ₹3.59 lakh crore in central assistance. The government mandated states and union territories to develop reform plans covering implementation, financing, and monitoring. The updated framework emphasizes operations and maintenance post-construction, linking funding to measurable service delivery, local management capacity, and ongoing access to safe drinking water.
Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 also introduces Sujalam Bharat, a national digital platform for rural piped-water systems. The platform creates detailed maps of water sources to household taps and assigns service-area identities to each village. Officials anticipate the system will aid in planning, asset management, and accountability. Local governments and village institutions continue to play a key role in daily operations. Community groups can oversee services, report issues, and support maintenance efforts. This approach integrates digital oversight with local responsibility, avoiding reliance solely on technology.
Community-based management drives broader water reform efforts
The article shared by Modi emphasizes that water management should encompass both resource control and service provision. This approach links infrastructure choices with the long-term water availability for each system, placing local institutions at the heart of service delivery. India’s ongoing reforms mirror this strategy through village-level management, digital monitoring, and national funding mechanisms. The model combines large-scale public programs with local oversight, connecting access to drinking water with wider initiatives in groundwater regulation, sanitation, conservation, and river restoration.
India’s water governance system does not depend on a single scheme. Instead, it consolidates household tap connections, groundwater programs, sanitation initiatives, and conservation measures under a comprehensive policy framework. The article presents these reforms as lessons for other developing nations to consider, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. India’s recent efforts continue to link infrastructure investments with accountability, system upkeep, and community involvement, with a focus on maintaining reliable water services as a key indicator of rural water system performance.