Modi’s Bold Water Initiative Falls Short of India’s Needs

• Indian government claims 193 million rural households will receive safe drinking water.
• Inconsistencies have been identified in government reports from six villages.
• Residents report broken taps, non-functional motors, and dry wells.

When construction crews came to the village of Lat in Jharkhand, India, last year to install water taps, Anita Devi felt a sense of hope that her daily water collection struggles would soon be over.

Rather than hauling large aluminum containers over 400 meters multiple times a day to fetch water from a shared borewell, she anticipated that water would flow directly into her home.

This initiative is part of a government plan worth 3.6 trillion rupees ($41.87 billion) initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, with the goal of providing tap water to all 193 million rural households in India by 2024. When the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) kicked off, merely 17% of rural homes had tap water access.

However, Devi, like many others throughout India, is still waiting for running water, highlighting a gap between government claims and the lived reality.

Government statistics indicate that 156 million rural homes have been equipped with water taps as part of JJM, representing 81% of the goal, including Lat, which is marked as a “certified” success on the mission’s website.

Interviews conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation with numerous residents from six villages in the Latehar and Palamau districts in Jharkhand revealed various issues, such as water tanks lacking connections to underground sources, malfunctioning taps, and broken motors.

Media reports suggest that costs associated with the JJM have already exceeded initial estimates, prompting an extension of the completion deadline to 2028.

Additionally, local officials have raised concerns about the transparency of the JJM’s implementation. Abdul Rahim Rather, the legislative speaker for the Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir region, announced in March a probe into suspected discrepancies linked to the program.

Swatantra Singh, Uttar Pradesh’s water minister, stated in May that he would assess nine districts to evaluate progress, while Maharashtra’s food and drug minister, Narhari Zirwal, criticized it as a “failed scheme,” according to news sources.

Meanwhile, India faces an imminent water crisis, with researchers indicating that water demand may soon outstrip supply by a factor of two.

Bold Initiative

Himanshu Kulkarni, co-founder of the Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management in Pune, Maharashtra, described the JJM as “unique, ambitious, and essential,” but emphasized the importance of tailoring strategies to meet the diverse needs of India’s villages.

“A site-specific approach is essential rather than a broad, uniform strategy,” Kulkarni stated. He also emphasized the need for stronger collaboration with local communities and civil society.

In Lat, Devi mentioned that her tap never delivered water. Shortly after installation, workers removed it, claiming it was substandard. No one returned to replace it, and the tank remains disconnected from a water source, she reported.

Similar stories emerged from villagers in the Latehar and Palamau districts.

Residents in Kutmu village, Latehar, recounted spending their own money on repairs for a water tank motor that never functioned.

In Itko village in Palamu, which the government claims is almost fully supplied with running water, evidence showed that several water tanks are incomplete, and many taps remain inoperative.

The initiative has also faced negative media reports, including an incident where an overhead water tank collapsed in Sitapur district, just weeks after another water tank burst in Lakhimpur within the same region.

These accounts align with findings from a recent audit by Vikas Sahyog Kendra, a local non-profit focusing on rural development.

In March, the organization surveyed 2,892 households across 12 villages in Palamu district, which the JJM claims now has drinking water. The audit discovered that only 14% of those homes had received taps, and a mere 3% had running water.

Vikas Sahyog Kendra also claimed that 510, or 17%, of the 2,892 households the government stated as beneficiaries were not actually in the area.

Furthermore, the audit revealed that 78% of the total budget for the 12 villages had been allocated, yet only 3% of the work was complete.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation reached out to the Ministry of Water’s Press Information Bureau via multiple emails and text messages regarding the audit findings and residents’ experiences. However, no immediate response was obtained.

Ignoring the Problem

James Herenj, a representative from Vikas Sahyog Kendra, explained that the challenges associated with the mission create a two-fold crisis for villagers.

“Especially in cases where the government asserts the JJM has been successful, people are still struggling to access water,” he noted. “There’s no assistance from the government because, on paper, there’s no issue.”

For 25-year-old Niroj Devi in Barkheta village, this translates to making many trips a day to a well, balancing heavy pots on her head.

“It takes about four minutes to walk to the well, but almost twice that to return with full pots,” said the mother of two. She added that two taps supposedly installed outside her home never worked.

Residents also mentioned that a water tank erected in the village remains unused. Although mission officials came to dig a borewell last year, they could not find any water. Nevertheless, they built a water tank at that site anyway.

“We told them that the tank has no water inlet and serves no purpose, but they continued regardless,” revealed 29-year-old Balwant Singh. “They even put up a sign claiming the water tower is functional.”

When the Thomson Reuters Foundation sought feedback from the government about the situation in Barkheta, they did not provide a prompt response.