“Sustainable Safe Drinking Water Supply and Environmental Hygiene for all” is the vision statement of the Nagaland’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). Bifurcated from the erstwhile Public Works Department to a fully fledged department in 1974, it is “responsible for providing safe and potable drinking water supply, safe disposal of solid and liquid waste and environmental hygiene.”
The department is also the nodal agency of centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) such as Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP). It also assists Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Committees in managing and augmenting rural water supply systems.
Water resource development has not received required attention and priority resulting in fragmented institutional framework and skewed water governance, a departmental document noted. The draft ‘Nagaland Water Policy 2016,’ formulated and submitted by the German Development Co-operation (GIZ) in February 2016, was offered as rectification.
Nagaland is among the “most water scarce” states in India despite receiving heavy rainfalls due to inefficient water management, lack of adequate preservation and effort to harvest the “free gift of nature,” the policy stated.
Reports indicate that present People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) approved the same in its Cabinet meeting on July 4, 2018. If so, it is the first State in the country to have a State Water Policy, a credit claimed by Meghalaya recently.
However, it goes to show how things remain mostly on paper in Nagaland and no headways are made on the ground. Two independent assessments are cited here to augment the assertion.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit report of NRDWP scheme submitted on August 7, 2018 covering the period 2012-17 is illustrative. Many implementation deficiencies were detected and Nagaland was found guilty on most counts. Among others, for a state with ‘Sustainable’ as a vision statement, it was among 21 states others lacking - a ‘Water Security Plans’ at any levels and an Annual Action Plans for Sustainability. The State Technical Agency (STA), which provides technical support to the department in planning and design of rural water supply schemes with emphasis on sustainability of the source, was also not identified.
The Audit also observed that the Operation & Maintenance (O&M) activities in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland were transferred to rural institutions but funds were not devolved. “Adequate and efficient O&M is essential for ensuring that water supply schemes remain functional,” the CAG noted.
Annual review of water quality test reports of the different level laboratories was also missing while Nagaland was among the 12 states having no mechanism for authentication and validation of data entered in the IMIS. District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM) also had not constituted any team of experts to check and ensure that the water quality monitoring and surveillance programme, while social audit of the programme was absent.
Things might have improved since then, one might argue, as the CAG’s report pertains to the period from 2012-2017.
A good indicator would be the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) 2.0 released by NITI Aayog on August 23.
While 24/7 water supply is a ‘piped dream,’ it stated that only 22% of the urban population is covered with drinking water supply. The state has not enacted legislation for the conservation of water bodies, yet to set up an integrated data centre, and has not installed any capacity to treat its wastewater, the report highlighted.
It also scored ‘0’ with no villages having individual household meters. No wonder, the online water bill payment system launched by PHED March 16, 2018 was defunct, when we last check. Overall performance on surface water restoration slipped due to the decline in the performance of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Nagaland, the report reflected, and the State’s performance on policy and governance was termed as “worrying.”
The aforesaid Nagaland Water Policy 2016 envisaged an integrated six-pronged strategic vision to answer “the concerns, challenges and ensure water security, future welfare and rights of future generations” including broad and uniform policy, coordination and harmonising operations, enhancing scientific and personnel capacity, and enacting a comprehensive state water law (Acts, Rules and Regulations). A statewide campaign to spread “conservation consciousness” and water sensitization was also suggested.
A generous ‘splash of water’ is pertinent to wake up from the current stupor.
