Despite facing acute water scarcity, villagers in Umtyrnuit strongly oppose the drilling of borewells because they want to preserve Mother Nature and the environment for future generations.
However, the village, which has more than 100 households, is still holding out hope that the water woes are resolved through the central government's Jal Jeevan Mission, which aims to provide potable, piped water to every home in the country.
Speaking to Highland Post, the Rangbah Shnong of Umtyrnuit (which falls under Sohiong constituency), L Sun, today also clarified that the Dorbar Shnong had never issued permission to ‘Tbeh Jingshai’ for borewell drilling and they will sit for an executive meeting to discuss the matter.
Tbeh Jingshai received permission from the Deputy Commissioner but not the Dorbar, Sun said.
We have halted the attempt to drill a borewell by Tbeh Jingshai because this could affect the water source at the village that we depend upon because the PHE (Public Health Engineering) water supply here is not regular and insufficient. Disruption of power supply is another hindrance because the PHE connection comes through a motor pumping from a source downstream,” he said, adding that in his 12 years as Rangbah Shnong he had never given a no-objection certificate (NOC) to anyone for borewell drilling.
He further informed that the government could sanction a JJM project for the village by next month.
