By Our Special Correspondent
SHILLONG, Nov 12: The much-touted Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is a non-starter in large swathes of Meghalaya, despite claims that water has reached every household.
The problem with such schemes is that they are not independently monitored. So while pipes have been laid across every nook and corner of the state, water is yet to flow from those pipes.
Even in a place that’s close to Shillong, like Laitkor for example, the residents are all buying water or travelling long distances to fetch drinking water.
When this scribe visited Nongjrong under Mawkynrew constituency recently and asked the villagers what was the most pressing problem. They yelled out in one voice “Ka Um” (water).
Earlier the residents said that water used to be pumped to Nongjrong located at a height of 3,589 feet from a place called Pingwait. After the JJM pipes were laid water stopped coming and the source at Pingwait also has dried up the villagers informed.
Misonwell Rangtong, a teacher and tour promoter who has singularly succeeded in turning Nongjrong into a much sought after tourist destination since 2019 onwards through his aesthetic pictures of the amazing sunrise during the winter season, says that buying water is expensive since the carrier comes from a long distance, hence most villagers have to traverse a difficult journey downhill and then climb uphill carrying water.
Nongjrong is a village of about 350 households mostly engaged in rice farming. Besides rice they also grow oranges and vegetables particularly tomatoes which are transported to the local markets. All these rise fields are located in the plains adjacent to the River Umngot which then flows downstream to Dawki. Along the slopes there are hundreds of orange trees with tomatoes and other vegetables growing alongside.
During the rainy season these are naturally watered by rain water. It is during the winters that growing vegetables becomes a challenge, the villagers say.
Meanwhile The Shillong Times contacted the Chief Engineer, PHED, RS Nongbri to find out the reasons for the delay in supplying piped water to Nongjrong when the pipes were already laid.
Nongbri’s replay was terse, “The JJM work is completed. I will have to find out why the water has not reached the village.”
Nongbri also stated that the JJM work for Laitkor is not yet complete.
Meanwhile ordinary people struggle to get piped water to their homes as promised by the JJM while water sellers continue to make good business out of selling a basic need that the welfare state is supposed to supply. Meghalaya is in its 54th year of Statehood but so much is left unfulfilled.
