RESUBELPARA, March 14: The centrally-sponsored Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) aimed at providing tapped drinking water to each and every household has been touted as a game changer for the rural population. However the myth of these projects actually making life any better for many villages within North Garo Hills, has been busted.
Following complaints from villagers of water not reaching their houses even after the installation of pipes leading to their houses under the scheme, The Shillong Times paid a visit to at least 14 villages under North Garo Hills, all around the Manikganj area.
As per the JJM website, the goal is to provide functional household tap connection to every household with service level at the rate of 55 litres per capita per day (lpcd).
Earlier villagers of Lower Manikganj had written to Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma over their water woes with the CM expected to visit the village two days ago. However no one is aware of what transpired but personnel from the PHE department (which handles JJM projects) diverted him to a nearby village (Harinkata – Garo) where the scheme was working fine.
The journey on Monday began at Lower Manikganj, the same village which the CM was supposed to visit, before being diverted. Villagers pointed out that taps were given to most of the houses in July last year. However after the first 3-4 days when tap water reached their homes, the taps have been dry ever since.
“The pipes have not been set up and we don’t even have taps to these connections. Most of the pipes are over the ground but even those have not been joined properly. Even if we get water or whenever we get water, it will not reach our houses as the lines are broken already. We have complained about this to the authorities and even the CM and he was due to visit on March 12. He never arrived,” said one of the villagers from Lower Manikganj which consists of about 50 households.
What was interesting was when they complained to one of the PHE employees about the water situation the official reprimanded them and said they should not complain since they were getting the connection for free.
In Upper Manikganj, a village consisting of 53 households which is not only close to a water source but had a tank set up for supply to not only them but many other villages, the situation was similar. A few houses that were close to the tank did get water. The others, a little far away, had no supply.
“The tank is not even enough to supply to our own village so we are not sure as to how they have fitted pipes to provide for other villages as well. We had even showed them a better water source but instead of making a new reservoir that could have made things better, they just painted the old one and left it as it is,” said one of the residents.
Another interesting story that the villagers told pertained to a certain visit by a director-level official from the PHED. Prior to his arrival, the contractors shut down supply for close to 3 days and restored the supply just prior to the director’s visit.
“The speed at which the water flowed left us all excited but as soon as he left, the taps ran dry again,” the villagers stated, adding that at least eight households were yet to be provided with taps.
The story of Radeng village, a little further up from Upper Manikganj, was similar.
Further ahead, more shocking details awaited in the village of Lower Miapara. This village consisting of about 53 households has not seen any water flowing through the taps in spite of tall claims that implementation of the scheme in the village is apparently complete. What was more interesting was that the contractor (apparently someone from the department itself) had tried to draw water from a pond by digging into the dry side. In the same village, about 20 metres above the so called source, the contractor had set up a 4×4 ft tank, which was supposed to provide water to at least 53 households with the pipes not even being joined from the tank to any of the pipes of the villagers. They had apparently been promised that water would be provided from another tank in Boro Miapara.
Boro Miapara had a decent sized reservoir which supplied water to those close to the reservoir. The villagers however stated that barring a few houses, water has not reached them. The village has 132 households.
The story of Harikata Kachary, Harinkata Rabha, Harinkata Bakra and New Harinkata seemingly followed a similar pattern. While taps have been provided (discounting the quality of work), water was not.
Visits to two more villages, Dome Anti (A&B with 130 households) revealed similar problems. The village had apparently been fitted with a solar pump that was operated only by the contractor.
One of the villagers also questioned the pipe fittings exemplifying the rough shod work being done.
“They have fitted the pipes to our house on top of the supply line pipe when it should have been to the side for water to flow. We have no clue as to how water is supposed to travel upwards from these pipes,” they said.
Amongst the 12-13 villages that were visited, contracts under JJM were provided to one Wilver Sangma in at least 5-6 of the villages. Information on the rest of the contractors were not available though some insisted the people from the PHE department themselves were undertaking the projects.
The villagers added that no complaint to the department has made any headway and they were forced to bring the matter forward to the local MLA from Mendipathar, Marthon Sangma.
When contacted, Executive Engineer (EE) of PHED in North Garo Hills, AD Sangma insisted that water was reaching houses and the problem could have been due to the dry season. He also added that most of the JJM schemes in the villages visited were not fully complete though water was reaching them.
Another interesting observation was the fact that there has been no money taken from any of the village committees as is mandated under JJM.
As per JJM guidelines, in Northeastern and Himalayan states having more than 50% SC and/or ST population, community contribution would be 5% of the capital cost, something that no one in any of these villages paid, which is clear indication that implementation of the scheme has been skewered.
“Why would someone pay for us to get tap water? We were not even aware that this is how the scheme works,” claimed one of the villagers.
Further none of the beneficiary villages has set up ‘pani samiti’ or ‘water user group’ as mandated under the JJM guidelines.