Supplying potable drinking water

During the year 2023, India got a distinction of becoming the most populated country in the world surpassingChina. The current population stands at 1.45 billion. It is a mystery how so many people are populating the countries of India and China, 1.40 and 1.45 billion respectively, while as USA comes distant third with a population of 350 million. To feed and govern such a huge population is a mind boggling task. India has progressed tremendously after its independence in 1947 but still a vast majority of people are living below poverty line. India at present is fifth largest economy of the world but the huge population takes out sheen out of its progress. At present 800 million people are given free ration and many other services are subsidized.

When Hon’ Prime Minister Mr. Narendar Modi came to power in 2014, he had a vision that mere industrilazation and commerce will not solve the problem of India’s poor. The provision of basic facilities like free housing, drinking water supply facilities, sanitation and health care for the poor section of society became his priority. I remember when late Sushma Swaraj, then EAM, in September 2014 declared in the UN general assembly that Govt of India is going to construct 240 million of toilets in five years to make India open defecation free (ODF) country. People laughed as they thought when other countries world talk of innovations in science and technology India is talking about construction of toilets.

The economic progress of a country is gauged by what percentage of people have access to the facilities like housing, sanitation and potable drinking water. Ambition of providing all basic facilities drew the PM to launch an ambitious program Jal Jevan Mission (JJM), to ensure that all households in India have piped water supply. During UN General Assembly session of 2019 the Prime Minister on floor of the UN General Assembly declared that Govt of India is going to spend 3.5 lac crores in next five years to cover all rural areas of India through piped water supply. It was envisaged that every rural household will have FHTC (fully functional household tap connections) by 2024. Here letter F has a significant meaning. The tap connection provided to every household should be functional in any circumstances. The PM wanted to serve two purposes with this scheme. One, to provide tap connections and other to stop the rural migration towards big cities. He wanted to implement this programme like MG NERAGA.

I was recently in Mumbai and observed that 90 percent of cab and auto Rickshaw drivers came from UP and Bhiar. This leads to creation of slums and huge burden on the utilities designed for particular population of a city. Thus a common practice of migration of workforce from UP, Bihar and Jharkhand to different parts of the country. MG NERAGA and JJM were flagship programmes which were conceived to stop this migration and provide livelihood to poor in their villages.

As soon as JJM was announced, the focus of coverage of habitation shifted to providing of FHTC. States and union territories employed every trick in their kitty to take lead in enlisting more and more tap connections. In 2019 national water survey it was found that Gujrat with 76 percent coverage and Lakshwadeep with 32 percent coverage of households provided with tap connections. Recently ZEE news Hindi channel carried a programme on JJM coverage of state of Haryana at prime time of 9 PM. Their team visited three districts of Panipat, Sonipat and Gurugram, near Delhi NCR. What they showed would make you vomit. In Panipat, at a place, they showed people taking water from hand pump situated in a very dirty and muddy place. Pigs played in mud there and I could not believe what type of unhygienic water people are drinking. People of three districts alleged that there is no work done under JJM and showed media the dried taps. Media tried hard to contact Govt representatives in this connection but failed. It is very strange that Haryana Govt has declared the state fully covered under JJM in year 2022.

Fortunately in J&K there is a robust infrastructure in both PHE and Irrigation departments. Only necessity is a financial injection for certain schemes which were left halfway due to paucity of funds and unwanted political intervention. If we complete the missing links there is no need of JJM as existing infrastructure is enough to provide FHTC to whole population. Here in this govt system it is easy to get funding for new projects but demand for adequate grants for maintaining already built infrastructure is frowned upon.

I have served in almost every district of valley and observed that only two districts of Anantnag and Ganderbal are having sufficient surface resources for both water supply and irrigation due to presence of nallah Lidder and Sindh. Other districts are not that fortunate and face lot of difficulties for selection of resources for a scheme. During last three decades Kashmir has lost enough resources of pure water due to pollution and climate change. The glaciers are retreating at a very fast pace and the canals which were once guzzling with clean water have turned to garbage dumps. Every village had at least one spring in past and all have vanished in our life time. Now only river Jhelum is our lifeline and is source of hundreds of water supply and irrigation schemes from Verinag to Uri. But the river is in very bad shape and there is danger we may also loose it. The River Jhelum needs utmost care. The embankments of the river are weak and dilapidated condition, particularly from Bijbehara to Pampore.

At present the department of PHE supplies more drinking water than required. But the need of the hour is efficient water management and conservation. People while constructing palatial houses particularly in Srinagar city do not provide underground water. Storage and fix boosters on supply lines of the department renders lot of population without drinking water. If you have to observe it come to my home. SMC should be requested that construction of U.G sump should be a condition while granting building permission. Rain water harvesting should be implemented at an earliest. Mumbai city with such a huge population has dependable water resources in the form of seven lakes. There are no glaciers and only rainwater during monsoon gets collected. I visited many of them and water shimmering and clean. We need to construct mini dams and impounding reservoirs so that no drop of rain is wasted.

By Siraj ud Din Shah

Siraj ud Din Shah, Retired S.E Hydraulic