Around 33 per cent, or one-third, of the Jal Jeevan Mission work in Meghalaya has been completed, Public Health Engineering Minister Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar has told Highland Post.
The JJM, a central government initiative, is working towards providing clean drinking water to every household in India.
“We have covered about 1,120 villages and implemented about 33-34 percent approximately of the scheme to date,” Tongkhar said. However, he added that his department is not sure that it can achieve a 100 percent implementation rate by the end of this year.
Out of a sanctioned budget of Rs 2,800 crore, roughly Rs 1,000 has been utilised.
The PHE Department is facing many challenges in the implementation of the scheme, including the identification of water sources, shifting from one water source to another, etc. At least one issue, though, has been sorted – that is the supply of pipes.
“All this time we were dependent on only one pipe supplier from Byrnihat but now the situation has improved and we are also studying if the tendering process is taking too much time. We are planning to avoid this by empaneling all contractors in one go,” the minister said, adding that this is just one of the measures the department is exploring to speed up the process.
JJM pipes, however, were in the news recently for all the wrong reasons, after a pressure group found that those supplied in Byrnihat were not of adequate standard.
When it comes to testing the purity of the water, Tongkhar said that, as part of the project, laboratories will be set up in each district.
Meanwhile, Tongkhar informed that the PHE Department has finally received clearance from the Defence Ministry for laying distribution lines for the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme (GSWSS) Phase 3.
He said that, with this clearance, the department is hopeful of completing Phase 3 this year.
“Now that we have fixed the two major hurdles in the execution of this project, including the sanction of the additional funds of Rs 65 crore to carry on with the work, and the NOC from the Defence Ministry, we are positive to try and complete the project within this year,” Tongkhar said.
