After Dialogue Earth report, Jharkhand officials outline plans to address water shortages in Adivasi villages

Nearly three months after Dialogue Earth reported on drinking water shortages in two Adivasi villages in eastern India’s Jharkhand state, district authorities have outlined plans for new water infrastructure and emergency supplies.

In June, Dialogue Earth had met Adivasi (Indigenous) families and community leaders in Ukhrapahari and Burhidangal villages, Dumka district, and found residents were no longer migrating with the intention of settling elsewhere. They left temporarily to earn enough to build a house or pay for a wedding back home. Their commitment to home withstood challenges including lack of safe water. Without a functional water supply, they were using natural ponds shared with cattle and wild animals. Women needed to make several arduous trips a day to these unclean ponds.

Residents said that government officials had laid a pipeline in Burhidangal in January 2025, as part of the Jal Jeevan Mission, which had promised tap connections to all of rural India’s households by 2024. Nothing, the residents said, had happened since. Officials said that while 65% of the project had been completed, administrative clearances from different government departments had been delayed, with full completion pushed to 2028.

In a message to Dialogue Earth on 6 October, Aniket Sachan, the deputy development commissioner of Dumka, said the administration has since surveyed the available water sources in both villages and is planning measures to address shortages. He said that both villages have “2-3 handpumps and 1 water supply tower each”. However, the water table falls during the summer, causing multiple sources to run dry and “hardship for residents.” Together, both Indigenous villages have around 527 residents in 107 households.

If groundwater levels fall after April, the administration plans to dig a high-yield deep tubewell, Sachan said. Such wells are intended to access groundwater at greater depths. Their effectiveness depends on local geological conditions and the availability of groundwater below existing wells.

A pond near Burhidangal, where some residents wash clothes. Community members say water has become increasingly scarce as rainfall has grown more erratic, making everyday tasks and farming more difficult (Image: Shalinee Kumari / Dialogue Earth)

Sachan said the administration would monitor water levels until March and, if water sources dry up again, either one or both villages would get a deep tubewell. He flagged two challenges. First, the boring technology currently available in Dumka cannot drill much deeper than the present water table. Second, installing a deep tubewell is expensive. Since other villages in the region face similar needs, the administration would “efficiently utilise” the available resources, he said.

Further, Sachan said the administration is working with Pradan, an NGO registered in New Delhi, on “GIS [geographic information system] planning and aquifer mapping.” The aim seems to be to try and raise the water table in both villages. Sachan said a detailed project report was in the works, and annual action plans would be in place within a month. The main challenge, the official admitted, was to convince residents to provide land for the interventions. “The cost is immediate while the benefits diffused in the horizon. But Pradan has a good ground presence, and they are helpful in building consensus,” Sachan said.

The administration is planning to procure water tankers with 3,000-5,000 litre capacity, depending on the available budget, Sachan said. It plans to provide these trucks to the district’s 25 Zila Parishad (District Council) representatives and allocate INR 50,000 per vehicle for operating costs during the summer. As per the plan, communities will be able to contact their local representatives to request a delivery. “This is a contingency measure which we hope not to use,” he said.

The longer-term solution, he said, was the Jal Jeevan Mission’s Shikaripara-Kathikund Full Block Coverage Multi Village Scheme, which could take another two years to complete. “It’s the only scheme that can provide reliable, piped water supply to all households,” Sachan said.

After the publication of its story, Dialogue Earth had previously reached out to Sourav Kumar, the block development officer of Kathikund and to Alok Kumar Soren, the member of legislative assembly for the Shikaripara constituency, which includes the two villages.

On 7 August, Kumar said the administration was assessing the drinking-water situation in the two villages and that concerns would be shared with the relevant authorities. On the same day, Soren said he would raise the matter with officials from the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department to establish the status of the Jal Jeevan Mission works and understand the reasons for the delay. He said he would explore whether the work could be expedited and look at the possibility of interim measures for residents until the permanent system was completed.

Prem Hasda, a 40-year-old resident of Burhidangal said officials had visited the village in August to enquire about the issues surrounding drinking water, and access to existing sources. “They had come during the monsoon, so water levels were higher than usual and the handpumps had water. The real problem is during May to June,” he said.

Hasda said villagers had not yet been officially told about the latest developments outlined to Dialogue Earth by the deputy development commissioner. The proposed tubewell and tanker plan therefore remains a measure articulated by the administration based on an acknowledgement of the problem; its implementation is yet to take concrete shape.

Dialogue Earth will continue following the story.