Tura: In a startling development under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Meghalaya, an embankment completed nearly two years ago has collapsed, revealing substandard construction.
The embankment failure occurred despite the absence of any significant water pressure or recent flooding in the Garo Hills region.
The collapse was brought to light by the Chibinang unit of the Garo Students’ Union (GSU), which visited the site following complaints from local villagers. The damaged project is part of the ongoing JJM initiative in Romgre, under Dadenggre, intended to benefit 249 households by providing Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs). According to the JJM dashboard, 219 of these households have been connected, with 30 still pending.
However, ground reports and NGO assessments tell a different story. “No pipelines have been laid, so the claim of households being connected is completely false,” said Amit Marak, president of the Chibinang unit of the GSU.
“You can see from the embankment itself that no pipelines have been drawn as yet so where did the connections to households suddenly come into the picture. The data is falsified by the department in question and begs the question, why,” unit president, Amit Marak said.
The project, reportedly with an overall budget exceeding Rs 50 crore, has already seen over Rs 44 crore withdrawn by the contractor, despite the apparent lack of progress. This discrepancy is particularly alarming given the significant financial investment and the urgency of providing clean water to residents.
The recent dashboard data for JJM indicates that Meghalaya has achieved nearly 78% completion of FHTCs with fully functional water supply. However, this figure is increasingly suspect, as multiple projects, including those in Nekikona near Rajabala and Tikrikilla GWSS, have displayed similarly dubious data, often attributed to “data entry errors.”
Despite widespread awareness of these discrepancies, corrective measures have not been implemented, resulting in a persistent mismatch between reported and actual progress. The reluctance of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department to provide information, even under Right to Information (RTI) requests, further exacerbates concerns. Calls and messages to the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Phulbari, overseeing the Romgre project, went unanswered.
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Adding to the controversy, third-party inspections of these projects have uncovered more problems than solutions, raising additional concerns about water management and development efforts.
“The department has to take stock of what has taken place, and we demand that an inquiry into what took place be undertaken. We only want that the people are given their due under the project. However, a lot of what has taken place does not make sense and needs a larger enquiry. A dam cannot fall without any form of natural calamity without it being poorly constructed,” Marak added.
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