Kerala lags in providing tap water to rural households: Union Min Shekhawat

Kerala is much behind the national average in providing fully functional tap water connections to rural households, Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said here on Wednesday.

The minister, after meeting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and reviewing the progress made in the area with the officials, said the state needs "more pace, more synergy, and more spending" in the key sector to achieve the central government's ambitious target of providing clean drinking water for every household by 2024.

Addressing a press conference, Shekhawat said the pan-India average is more than 60 per cent and "we were able to provide more than 8.5 crore connections over the period of the last three years, but the state of Kerala is much behind the national average."

Kerala has so far provided tap water connections to around 47 per cent of households.

The minister said that though the total number of houses in the state is 70 lakhs, only 34.17 lakh houses have piped water ...