‘Har Ghar Jal’ mission started on 2nd October 2020. Even though the rural population is not getting drinking water, the government claims to provide connections to lakhs of homes. According to the record, at the time of the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission on August 15, 2019, 13.53 lakh (11 percent) of rural households Tribals in MP had a tap water supply.
In the tribal areas of the Shahdol division, villagers get a bucketful of water after walking two to three kilometers. The worst situation is in the hilly areas. Due to a lack of borewells here, the water system has not been constructed even after decades. The tribals are compelled to quench their thirst with the contaminated water of the pit and Jhiriya.
Villagers of Sarai village, a hilly area on the border of Shahdol and Anuppur, have been quenching their thirst for decades with water seeping out of the pits. A plan was made to supply water by making a drinking water tank from the neighboring Panchayat Tarang, but the department has failed to reach the village.
There are dozens of such villages in Mandla and Dindori, including Dal village of Beohari of Shahdol, where the drinking water crisis becomes a major issue in summer.
Shyaam Kali, a resident of Sarai village, says that drinking water has become more important than wages. We have to bring water from pits and wells. We complained to the government officials, but no one was ready to listen.
Pushprajgarh is the area most impacted by the drinking water issue in the sweltering heat. Instead of using water from ponds, rivers, or hand pumps, the local inhabitants in Boda are compelled to satiate their thirst with contaminated water by digging pits.
In Chhindi Tola, there are 12 homes, housing 48–50 people. They can be seen here drinking water from the trenches to alleviate their thirst.
The Jal Jeevan Mission in Shahdol was started in 2020. Till now, 129 work orders have been approved, of which only 70 work orders have been completed. In this, the time limit for starting water supply in rural areas by making water tanks and laying pipelines was fixed at 9 months.
Currently, the situation is that neither the pipes are laid nor the tanks are made. While it is mandatory to complete all the work in 3 to 6 months so that the deadline date can be reached, it seems very difficult for the officials to complete it.
The coming of rain has already slowed down the pace of work. It will be very difficult for the villagers to get rid of the water problem.
The reality of Government Schemes
“Officials and public representatives come to leave us with assurances, even after decades there is no water system in the village. You have to drink the contaminated water from the pits,” said Mangali bai. Two plans have been sanctioned in Anuppur under the Har Ghar Jal Mission.
36 villages are receiving water from this as part of the 60.33 crores Krishi Jal Praday Yojana and the Damheri Water Supply Scheme, which will spend 92.88 crores to provide drinking water to 74 villages more in Pushprajgarh.
According to the terms of the tender, the pipeline laying work has been finished, but in Pithoragarh, the pipeline’s length was unable to reach neighboring villages because of the clustering of far-off homes. It might require another six months to complete the project.
The project was scheduled to be finished on August 1st, 2020. Up to now, the majority of the work has been completed, but the detailed project report (DPR) is not yet prepared for further action.
22 multi-village schemes were approved to provide tap water connections to the rural population. These schemes have been started in Rewa, Satna, Sehore, Sidhi, Alirajpur, Barwani, Jabalpur, Panna, Mandla, Sagar, Katni, Dhar, Sheopur, Umaria, and Khargone in the state.
Villagers of 9240 villages in the state will get its benefit. By 2024, all rural households will be getting supply drinking water through taps. A total of Rs 5,117 crore has been allocated for Madhya Pradesh in the years 2021-22, out of which Rs 2,558 crore has already been released to Madhya Pradesh for implementation of the “Har Ghar Jal” program.
Even though the rural population is not getting drinking water, the government claims to provide connections to lakhs of homes. According to the record, at the time of the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission on August 15, 2019, 13.53 lakh (11 percent) of rural households in MP had a tap water supply (rural and urban both).
Officials claims that pace of work decreased due to the lockdown still only 31.63 lakh (25.8 percent) households have been given tap water connections.
For the year 2021-22, tap connections have been provided to 7 lakh homes but still the target of 22 lakh is quite far to achieve.
Taps have been installed to multiple villages of Satna district, about 400 out of 1800 villages in districts have been connected with tap connection, still when it comes to tribal areas of district government has not even done an inspection. Areas such as majhgawan, markundi, jaitawar are far from the reach of government officials.
The Tribes of Michkurin
Every day, the tribals of Michkurin village of Satna district travel 4-5 kilometers to get water that is not even drinkable. In this tribal village, the government’s tap water scheme has flopped, and even the government tank is not able to moisten the throats of the tribals.
As a result, amid panchayat elections, the tribals have opened a front against the government. At present, the officials are assuring that arrangements will be made to send one tanker of water to the village every day.
SDM P.S. Tripathi says, “There is a pipeline laid there, but since the distance from the Majhgawan tank is enough and also the village is situated at a specific height due to which the water pressure reaches only to a few taps.” Since the code of conduct has been implemented in the state due to the panchayat election, no work can be done further.
We will be sending water tankers to the village tomorrow till the rain comes. “
In hundreds of villages in Madhya Pradesh, the summer season is similar to this. In the government files, there is a lot of praise for the Nal Jal Yojana. But in reality, the scheme has become only a government promise, and this is the reason why people are seen circling the offices of the officials for water.
