Piped dreams? Nagaland’s JJM status

Morung Express News 
Dimapur | March 22

Nagaland on March 22 joined the rest of India in launching the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan - Catch the Rain’ campaign under the theme ‘Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls’ aimed at focusing on “saving and conserving rainwater.”

Implemented under the flagship Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the campaign will run from March 22-November 30, in the pre-monsoon and monsoon periods of 2021, covering both urban and rural areas of all districts in the country.

The JJM, among others, is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) by 2024 to all households in rural India. 

On the occasion of World Water Day, The Morung Express presents a brief status of the mission in Nagaland based on JJM Dashboard maintained by the water ministry. 

Functional Household Tap Connection (FTHC)
As per the status of tap water supply in rural homes on the Dashboard, there are a total of 3, 85,699 households (HHs) in Nagaland, out of which, only 50,674 had tap water connections as of March 22.

It represented just 13.14% of the total HHs as against the all-India average of 37.28%.

However, the State has made some stride since the launching of the JJM in August 15, 2019 when only 3.30% HHs (13,883) had tap connections. 

A total of 36,792 (9.54%) HHs have been connected with tap water thereafter, the Dashboard said. 

District-wise, Zunheboto topped others in tap water supply at 21.61% (7,129 out of 31,982) of the total HHs. Tuensang was next at 19.08% (6,881 out of 36,069) followed by Mokokchung at 17.87% (7,302 out of 40,853)

On the other end, it was lowest in Longleng at just 4.75% (745 HHs out of 15,697). Peren followed next at 7.48% (1,723 out of 23,024) and Mon at 7.59% (4,345 out of 57,241). 

The status of Har Ghar Jal Villages in Nagaland was also quite low. With just 90 out 1,502, the percentage of villages having 100% FHTC was just 5.99% in Nagaland against the all-India average of 37.28%, the Dashboard informed. 

Tap water supply in schools/anganwadis (AWS)
Nagaland has performed much better in provision of tap water connection in schools as per the Dashboard.

With 1,872 schools out of 1,795 schools depicted to be having tap water supply, the overall percentage was 90.20% in Nagaland.

In six districts, Kiphire, Kohima, Longleng, Mokokchung, Tuensang and Wokha, the connections were 100% while in the rest of the districts - Zunheboto,Phek, Peren, Dimapur and Mon - the percentages ranged from 68.72% to 92.70%
However, details of facilities in schools informed that only 272 have tap water supply in toilets or urinals; 581 for hand washing; 496 with provision of rainwater harvesting; and 32 with provision of grey water reuse.

The status of AWCs with tap water supply, however, was dismal.

As of March 22, out of 3,980 in Nagaland only 1,045 had tap water supply denoting just 26.26%.

Longleng district was way ahead of others in terms of AWCs at 87.04% followed by Wokha at a distant second with 45.81% and Kohima (35.02%). 

With just 5 out of 400 AWCs (1.25%) with tap water supply, Mokokchung was at the bottom while Mon was next at 11.91% followed by Phek at 15.01%.

It must be mentioned here that during a mid-term review meeting on planning and implementation of JJM in Nagaland held on October 23, 2020, Nagaland, among others, was requested to ‘ensure that all the AWCs and schools are provided piped water supply as part of the special 100-day campaign launched on October 2, 2020.’ 

The request is yet to fructify according to the Dashboard. If the current status continues and the pace of work does not pick up, the objective of providing piped connection to all HHs by 2024 in Nagaland may just remained a ‘piped dream.’

Under JJM, during 2020-21, Nagaland has been allocated an amount of Rs 114.09 crore, out of which Rs 28.52 Crore was released to the State, informed a release from the MJS via PIB after the review meeting. 

Further, under the 15th Finance Commission Grants to rural local bodies, Nagaland was allocated Rs 125 Crore in 2020-21, 50% of which is mandatorily to be utilised on drinking water supply and sanitation activities, it added.