PHED flops in Jiribam
Source: The Sangai Express

Jiribam, November 06 2012: Among other hardships faced by the people of Jiribam subdivision, scarcity of hygienic water within the subdivision is one direct major challenge confronting the people.

Jiribam subdivision is located around 222 kms away from its district headquarters, Imphal East, and is a place said to have earned the tag, 'the most neglected place by the Govt' in terms of water supply, road connectivity, health apart from many other developmental schemes.

Like all other departments, the PHE Department of the State Govt has failed to provide hygienic water supply in Jiribam regularly.

The department provides water for Municipality areas (mainly covering a radius of around 7 km with 5000 people approximately) .

The department was set up in 1981 at Jiribam.

It was then run by PWD before the setting up of a separate department.

It was later kept under Imphal and Bishnupur division.

Now, the PHE is upgraded to a division with a staff strength of 27.The foundation stone for conversion of the subdivision into a division was laid by the then PHED Minister TN Haokip on July 3, 2008 .

Much against the expectation that the upgradation of PHE into a division would help in solving water shortage problem in Jiribam and its surrounding areas, the promises and assurances have all turned out to be just mere 'words' .

Not long after the upgradation of the PHE into a full-fledged division, irregularities in water supply was most felt by the residents.

The matter became more worse during dry season.

Things did not change for good even the local MLA of Jiribam was assigned the PHED Minister at a point of time.

As such, majority of the Jiri populace had to rely on unsafe and unhygienic source of water including pond, well and river for consumption thereby exposing the people to more risk of suffering from water borne diseases like cholera, typhoid, dysentery etc.

As of now, outdated machines and pipelines needed to be replaced.

The water pulling pump which is lying at the bank of the river is not suitable one as it's too small besides its out-of-the-way location.

The machines have to be replaced as per Government instruction, but the authorities installed an outdated one.

This machine need replacement with a boat system to avoid frequent complain of sand deposition.

Out of 27 staff sanctioned at Jiri PHED division, only 4/5 staff are in the station.

Officers are visiting here once or twice in a year.

Though the Govt has reportedly sanctioned Rs 10,00000 (10 Lakhs) recently for operation maintenance, no positive work has been seen being taken up.

The matter may get worsen day by day if proper amount of attention is not paid by the higher authority of the department.

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