PHED asked to complete mega water supply project within 60 days

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 7 (EMN): The Zhadima Village Council (ZVC) has submitted a representation to the chief engineer of Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), urging to expedite the process of supplying pipeline water to all the earmarked villages within 60 days.

The representation was served in connection with PHED’s mega-water supply project at Zhadima village, a water treatment plant and balancing reservoir that is supposed to benefit 24 villages under Chiephobozou block.

The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) had sanctioned an amount of INR 2626.41 lakh (INR 26.26 crore) under the non-lapsable central pool of resource (NLCPR), following which the project was taken up by PHED and began in November 2011. But the project still stands incomplete.

The representation stated that “many tall promises had been made, yet the project could not be wholly completed on time and till date no positive outcome has been achieved and therefore we are constrained to submit this representation which should be treated with utmost exigency and thereafter we shall not be held responsible for any untoward eventuality”.

“What we the Zhadima Community and its neighbouring villages longed and implored for is to let the concerned department wholly complete the project of providing water supply to twenty four (24) villages under Chiephobozou Block,” it stated.

It may be mentioned that locals had stopped the commissioning of the project when PHED Minister Jacob Zhimomi went to Zhadima to commission the project on July 30, 2019. Back then, Zhimomi assured, “I had committed that by December (2019) we will put all pressure, all resources to see that the project is completed. But now we will have to find other avenues to finance this project because we don’t have resources on our own”.

However, “the tall promises by the PHED Minister on 30th July 2019 to fully complete and commission the project latest by December 2019 still stands unfulfilled. We have been taken for granted but let it be reminded that we will fight tooth and nail for what is due to us. The concerned department is trying to play a cut throat game where the department is trying to placate the masses with false RTI replies while trying to subjugate the innocent villagers of their basic rights”, the council stated.

It further claimed that the project is “incomplete and lacks credibility” and there are “numerous lapses in providing water supply to the earmarked villages”.

Citing a report by The Morung Express more than a month ago about the incomplete water supply project, the village council said that it wanted to supplement and reiterate the department’s reply to an RTI that “assets constructed are functional… structures are lying unused because villagers were demanding for more water tanks”.

It said the reply “is quite conflicting, as not a single water tank (s) were constructed nor any pipelines laid in all the strategic locations for water distribution in the village during that time, moreover, the villagers did not demand or requested the department for more water tanks, this is an absolute lie”.

The department in a recent clarification stated that nine out of 24 villages were to be covered by pumping from the Vithoru source and the remaining 15 villages by independent sources. Yet, the completion of the project was affected due to non-release of INR 130.20 lakh. It added that water supply is available in 11 (from the 15) villages while restoration works would be carried out in the other villages.

In this regard, the council sought to know the 11 villages where water supply had been made available. It also asked why only nine villages were to be covered under NLCPR project (by pumping water from source) while 24 villages had been earmarked under the project for which crores of rupees had been spent.

It further sought to know the 15 villages that would get water supply through independent sources, and “what actually are the independent sources”.