Sambhar, Rajasthan — known globally for its vast saline lake and a magnet for migratory birds from Siberia and northern Asia — has made headlines this summer not for its ecological beauty, but for a desperate cry for help. In an unprecedented move, residents of this Ramsar-recognized wetland area have begun pasting “House for Sale” posters on their homes and streets, citing an unlivable crisis: a catastrophic shortage of drinking water.
Ironically, Sambhar’s fame as a wetland contrasts sharply with the villagers’ daily reality — they are unable to access even a bucket of clean drinking water. According to residents, they receive water for barely 25 to 30 minutes every 72 to 96 hours. This, despite the Centre’s ambitious Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) that promises “Har Ghar Jal” (Water to Every Household) through functional tap water connections delivering 55 litres per capita per day (lpcd).
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her 2025-26 Budget speech and in a response to a Parliamentary query on March 17, proudly declared that JJM was launched in 2019 with the goal of universal rural water supply by 2024. At the time, only 3.23 crore households had tap water connections. As of March 2025, over 15.53 crore rural homes reportedly had access to tap water, with another 3.83 crore still to be covered.
But residents of Sambhar tell a different story — one of state apathy and bureaucratic failure. Furious and exhausted, villagers held a public meeting at Charbhuja Mandir and Dadudwara, where they resolved to sell their properties and leave the town for good. Posters reading “Bhishan payjal sankat ke karan, is gali ke sabhi makan bikau hain” (Due to severe water crisis, all houses in this street are for sale) have been plastered across 150 homes, according to local councillor Gautam Singhania of the BJP.
“For the last seven years, we haven’t had a dedicated water tank supplying water through pipelines,” Singhania told NDTV on June 3. “We’ve made countless complaints, but no one listens. Of the original 3,500 residents, only 1,700 remain, and even they are preparing to leave.”
The situation has worsened dramatically this summer, pushing residents past their breaking point. While the Centre continues to showcase JJM as a rural water revolution, ground realities in Sambhar — and other parts of Rajasthan — tell a tale of delays, broken promises, and faulty implementation.
Local Congress MLA Vidhyadhar Chaudhary said he raised the issue in the Rajasthan Assembly as far back as January 31, but to no avail. On June 9, Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra criticized the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government for its failure to manage both irrigation and drinking water needs. “The whole state is in crisis — from the Chief Minister’s own constituency, Sanganer, to Jodhpur,” he posted on X.
Dotasra also cited alarming statistics: of Rajasthan’s 691 dams, 368 are virtually dry, 176 have minimal water, and only seven are at full capacity. Overall storage is at 46%, almost half of what it was at the same time last year.
Congress MP from Churu, Rahul Kaswan, echoed similar concerns. He accused local officials of fudging completion figures for JJM projects. “On paper, 70% of the work in Churu district is shown as complete,” Kaswan said, “but tanks remain unbuilt, pipelines are disconnected, and budget deviations have left projects in limbo.” He demanded an investigation into the inflated data and immediate corrective planning.
The Centre, meanwhile, has quietly extended the deadline for completing JJM to 2028, admitting that the original 2024 target has been missed. Yet, the pace of progress is far from reassuring. Between March 17 and June 13, just 12 lakh new households received water connections — that’s 4 lakh per month. At this rate, the government will miss even the new 2028 deadline, which requires an average of 8.83 lakh connections per month for the next 42 months.
This raises several critical questions: Why set ambitious targets without the infrastructure or funds to meet them? Why boast of achievements when people in drought-prone villages like Sambhar are forced to abandon ancestral homes for basic human survival?
Water scarcity isn’t new to Rajasthan, but Sambhar’s plight — unfolding in the shadow of a wetland known for abundance — is both tragic and symbolic. The crisis is not just administrative, but moral. A scheme that promised dignity through reliable water access now threatens to turn villages into ghost towns.
It’s not just about numbers in Parliament or portals; it’s about people—thousands of families pushed to despair, their voices drowned in bureaucratic noise. The Centre and the Rajasthan state government must treat Sambhar not as an exception but as a warning of what lies ahead if rural water promises remain unfulfilled.
Sambhar’s “House for Sale” signs are not mere protest. They are a plea — and perhaps a final call — for the authorities to act before more villages disappear from the map, one tap connection at a time.
