Water on paper, air in taps: Manipur villages struggle for water despite JJM claims

Senapati: The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), also known as the “Har Ghar Jal” scheme, was launched on August 15, 2019, by the Government of India. Its primary objective is to provide safe and adequate drinking water to every rural household in the country by ensuring a Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) by 2024.

The mission seeks to improve the quality of life in rural areas by supplying clean water directly to homes, thereby reducing the burden of water collection, improving health outcomes, and promoting overall well-being.

However, in Manipur, the launch of this ambitious scheme has not addressed local issues. People have alleged data manipulation, and the official dashboard listings do not reflect the actual situation on the ground.

This EastMojo correspondent recently visited several villages in Senapati district to interact with local residents and understand how the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme is being implemented on the ground.

Kamtina, an over 80-year-old woman from Oklong Maryram village—a Liangmai Naga community under Willong block—lives alone in a small hut. Together with her octogenarian neighbor, she has improvised by joining water pipes and connecting them to a neighbor’s home to fill their 200-litre barrel each, which lasts them at least two weeks.

Due to their advanced age, Kamtina and her neighbor are unable to fetch water from the village pond. A scheme like the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) would have been a tremendous relief to them, had the promised Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) project been properly implemented in their village.

Allegations of data manipulation:

Unfortunately, the contractors or agencies responsible for implementing the project have stopped work before completion. Despite this, the project has been reported as completed in government records, highlighting a significant gap between official documentation and the actual situation faced by villagers like Kamtina.

Villagers claimed that there is no tap water despite the dashboard listing high numbers of connected households under the JJM.

“Some department officials and contractors came with a huge number of pipes. After constructing a reservoir, they stretched a pipeline, then put the tap on the surface, took pictures of the water dripping, and left. We don’t even know where all the pipes were used because we had to buy our own pipes from the market to get connected to the reservoir tank,” said RK Hingba, chairman of three villages, namely Oklong Maryram, Oklong Khunou, and Oklong Khullen.

The village leader pointed out discrepancies in the government portal regarding the number of households connected to tap water.

According to the portal, 172 households in Oklong Maryram, 418 in Oklong Khullen, and 73 in Oklong Khunou have been shown as connected. However, the actual number of houses in these villages is only 75, 284, and 60, respectively. This highlights significant inconsistencies between the official data and the real situation on the ground.

Exposure of fraudulent implementation under JJM:

After witnessing the widespread misuse and misreporting of data under the JJM scheme in the region, RK Paul Chawang, a social activist and human rights defender, filed a Right to Information (RTI) request against the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) Senapati. The RTI report revealed that at least 30 other villages in the district had experienced similar manipulation and misreporting under the JJM scheme.

PHED Senapati provided DPR details on only 30 villages and withheld details of 135 villages, even though the official JJM Dashboard shows cumulative data for all 135 villages, said Chawang.

Chawang claimed that, in addition to the names of actual villagers, the list also included non-locals and children without homes in the village as households with functional water tap connections.

According to K Pungding, chairman of Oklong Khullen, on the official JJM dashboard reports that out of 418 households in the village, 364 have been connected with functional water tap connections, and only 54 remain without a water tap connection.

In reality, Pungding clarifies, there are only 284 houses in Oklong Khullen, and none of these households have access to tap water connections or water storage tanks constructed under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). This statement highlights the substantial discrepancy between official records and the actual situation on the ground.

He also urged government authorities to address the grave issue of water scarcity faced by poor villagers. In addition, he called for legal action against the department officials and contractors responsible for the alleged scam, demanding that they be held accountable under the law.

During our visits, we discovered that in many villages, isolated cement taps had been constructed without any attached water pipelines. As a result, not a single household was receiving drinking water through these so-called connections.

Fake Work Orders

Laii is one of the largest villages in the Poumai Naga community, situated in the Paomata sub-division. With more than 800 households, Laii is located over 80 km from the Senapati district headquarters.

The residents of Laii primarily depend on springs, streams, and rivulets for their water needs, as the existing government water supply scheme does not provide sufficient water, especially during the lean season. Villagers often have to travel 2 to 3 kilometers to reach distant natural water sources to fetch water for washing and other daily necessities.

The introduction of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) could have addressed and alleviated the severe water crisis in Laii village if the project had been completed not just on paper, but in reality.

According to K. Ngaopuni, secretary of Laii village, the village authority has implemented strict daily water quotas, allowing only two buckets of water per household during the lean season.

“Those who require more water apart from the two buckets need to travel 5 km down to the river. And during the monsoon season, villagers turn to rainwater harvesting to meet their daily needs,” said Ngaopuni.

LD Thakho Thomas, a member of the JJM Inquiry Committee in Laii village, added: “The total amount supposed to be implemented in our village was Rs 2.7140 crore, which is a significant sum. However, the PHED department has issued another fake work order amounting to Rs 96 lakh. With that amount, I believe the implementing agency constructed some water tanks for trial purposes, but these lack inlet or outlet water pipelines. Also, there is no water reservoir as well.”

Having grown increasingly frustrated with the ongoing apathy and lack of action despite numerous complaints and petitions to the relevant authorities—including the district administration—the residents of Laii village, together with neighboring communities, filed a Right to Information (RTI) application against the PHED department.

The villagers strongly condemned the indifferent attitude of the concerned departments and have pledged to continue fighting until their concerns and grievances are duly addressed.

Compelled to buy water from private tankers:

Shehrii Gobin, chairman of Paomata Centre village, revealed that despite the implementation of the JJM project in the village, residents continue to rely on private water tankers, which cost Rs 1,200 for 2,000 litres.

According to H. Kevin Pao, Finance Secretary of Paomata Centre village, the JJM portal has falsely reported that out of 236 households in the village, 193 houses are fully connected with Functional Household Tap Connections, leaving only 43 houses without water tap connections. However, government records claim that 10 water tanks have been constructed in the village, while in reality, only four distributor tanks with functional inlet or outlet connections exist.

“To be honest, this is truly a false report from the JJM and highly condemnable. People here are struggling almost throughout the year due to acute scarcity of water, and instead of addressing the issue, the authorities manipulated the data through false reporting and incomplete implementation,” said Pao.

Similarly, villagers of Tobufii, a Mao Naga village, were compelled to invest and install a drilling machine so that water could be stored at the reservoir being constructed under the JJM scheme.

Modu Heshu, a village elder, lamented that the village had to spend Rs 4.30 lakh to construct the drilling because the reservoir and five other smaller tanks built under the JJM scheme were constructed without any pipeline connections. “If the drilling machine stops working, our village will be in a grave situation when it comes to drinking water,” he said.

The recent exposure of the JJM scam in the Senapati district highlights only the tip of the iceberg. There are concerns that the implementation of JJM may have also failed in other districts of Manipur.

Comments from departmental officials could not be obtained.

The only village where the “Drink from Tap Mission” pilot project has been successfully implemented so far is Akhui village in Tamenglong district, which became the first village in Manipur to achieve this on August 1, with all 78 households receiving tap water.

Also Read: Study maps alarming vulnerability in Son Beel, Assam’s largest wetland