Explain Chanot Village Water Crisis Protest 2026

In Chanot village, Hisar, a bottle of dirty yellow water hangs at the protest site. Villagers put it there to show the world what comes out of their taps every single day.

This is not a new problem. Chanot has been living with this for over 20 years.

Chanot Village Water Crisis

Dirty water from Chanot village Hisar displayed at protest site

The water that reaches homes in Chanot is not safe to drink. The storage tanks at the local waterworks have frogs, insects, and snakes in them. The water smells. Drinking it has caused illness across the village for years. Skin allergies from bathing in it are common. Cancer cases in the area have been linked to the water quality.

Even animals in Chanot refuse to drink from the supply. The ones that do fall sick.

Only about 10 to 20 percent of homes have RO filters. Those are mostly families with better income. Everyone else drinks what comes from the tap or spends their own money on packaged water. This is what Har Ghar Jal looks like on the ground in Chanot.

Why Chanot Village Is Protesting

Chanot village men and women gathered at dharna site Hisar

For years people in Chanot raised this issue with their local MLA. Nothing moved. Promises came. Nothing was delivered.

So the entire village came out together. Farmers, women, elders, youth. Khap leaders and farmer union members from nearby villages stood with them. A dharna started at the protest site and ran for over a month.

This is the first protest Chanot has ever done in its history. It took 20 years of dirty water to reach this point.

Chanot Village Water Crisis Hunger Strike

82 year old man on hunger strike at Chanot village protest Hisar

Five people from Chanot went on hunger strike. One of them was 82 years old. He sat without food for 10 days so that his village could get clean water.

A woman at the protest said her husband had already passed away. She said she would sit until she could not anymore. After her, her son would sit. After him, his wife. They were not leaving without water.

Their only demand was a 6-inch water connection from the Bhakra pipeline that already passes through their own village. No land. No money. No jobs. Just clean water.

₹68 Crore Pipeline and Chanot Village Water Crisis

Jal Ghar waterworks building in Chanot village Hisar

A ₹68 crore government pipeline carries clean Bhakra Canal water straight through Chanot village. The water inside that pipe goes to Hansi city. The people of Chanot, whose land this pipeline crosses, get nothing from it.

The pipeline is 36 inches wide. Villagers asked for just 6 inches of that water. A simple T-joint connection from the same pipe running through their fields.

When Hansi BJP MLA Vinod Bhayana came to the dharna site, a young man named Anoop Kumar stood up and read out 12 promises the MLA had made to Chanot over the years. He called every single one a lie. The MLA sat and said nothing. That video went everywhere.

After over a month of protest a water connection was finally made from the Bhakra pipeline to Chanot. The next day the administration filed a criminal case saying someone had made an illegal connection. The water Chanot celebrated one night became a crime the next morning.

Chanot Village Protest Police Action

Police deployed at Chanot village water protest Hisar

At 2 AM one night, police arrived at the dharna site and tried to remove the protesters by force.

The 82-year-old hunger striker was shoved. He nearly fell to the ground. Young men keeping watch were pushed around.

Protest leaders were clear about one thing. The police are not the enemy. They come from the same villages. The problem is the people giving the orders from above.

The midnight action did not break the protest. More people joined the next day.

Chanot Village Demands

Chanot village tractor march towards DC office Hisar

After the tractor march to the DC office, after women smashed matkas outside the district collectorate in the rain, the administration finally announced that an 8-kilometre pipeline from Rajli Head to Chanot would be laid. Work has started. It will take two to three months they said.

The villagers did not go home. They said they will believe it when the water actually comes.

Chanot is not asking for anything big. The pipeline is already there. The canal is already there. The water is already flowing, just not to them. A village that gave its land for a government project is still waiting for a glass of clean water.