When construction workers arrived last year in the village of Lat in India's eastern Jharkhand state to install water taps, Anita Devi rejoiced, thinking this would end her daily struggle to get water.
Instead of having to carry large aluminum pots for 400 meters to and from the common borewell numerous times a day, drinking water would flow straight into her home.
It was part a 3.6 trillion rupee ($41.87 billion) government plan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 to provide tap water to all of India's 193 million rural homes by 2024. When the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was launched, only 17% of India's rural households had tap water connections.
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