The maximum temperature hit about 44 degrees Celsius around noon and made life miserable across Bokaro and Dhanbad districts here on Monday.

With the rising summer heat Fire and rescue services department has warned the residents to be wary of the phenomenon of auto-ignition. “It is a phenomenon in which combustible materials catch fire on their own triggered by the rising temperature,” said Fire officer P Singh.

Several minor fire incidents were reported during the past few days and in most of the cases, auto ignition was the reason behind the fire, said he.  

Soaring temperatures not only caused discomfort to the residents, it resulted into depleting the water table in several parts of the twin districts. Many hand pumps are lying defunct including waterfalls, in many parts of the district. Not only humans but animals too are withering under the intense heat.

More than 5600 water sources were dried-up in Bokaro and Dhanbad districts, while water levels in the Garga and Damodar River were also depleted.

The water table in several parts of the districts has gone remarkably down; villagers residing in Jainamore, Paterwar, Kasmar, Phusro, Outskirts of Chandrapura were alleging that this year they are facing a huge water crisis. Duo districts are facing acute drinking water crisis as around several thousands of handpumps are lying defunct, check dams, wells and other water sources were dried-up.

In Chas water table drops by 8 to 10 meters in this summer, said Bablu Kumar a resident of Tara Nagar Chas.

Groundwater is very fast depleting in the CMC area, earlier in the year 2000 the groundwater level was at 60 feet and later started depleting consistently, informed a PHED official. In 2005 it reached at 100 feet and in 2015 it comes to 150 feet and presently the groundwater level in CMC area is at 185 feet (average), he said.