As the summer has set in with day temperature on the rise, the spectre of drinking water has haunted once again in several villages in the coastal Kendrapada district.
The situation is precarious in some of the villages under Mahakalapada block. Villages like Gojabandha, Guhalakani, Chedakani, Bandhapada and Barakanda do not have drinking water facilities. The situation of Guhalakani is the worst.
The remote villages have been facing severe water scarcity for more than two to three decades as several Government-sponsored programmes under the District Rural Water Sanitation Scheme (RWSS) have failed to deliver permanent drinking water facilities in the areas. Due to non-availability of supplied pipe water, the residents are forced to depend on contaminated and unhygienic pond water to complete their routine works, informed Nathia Raul, a villager of Guhalakani.
In order to fetch a pot of water, they have to trek 1-2 miles for a tubewell at Gojabandha village and have to wait for more than an hour to fill a pot. About 800 people of Guhalakani have to depend on the lone private tubewell to collect drinking water, informed Rebati Nauri, another villager of Guhalakani.
“I have been witnessing the drinking water scarcity in the village since I came to the village as newlywed bride,” stated Sarathi Roul, a middle aged woman showing her angst.
local ward member Rabindra Palai said when the private tubewell gets defunct, we have to depend on the contaminated and unhygienic pond water or saline water of the luna river.
Though there were some swallow tubewells in the village, but the water from them is not fit for drinking, alleged the villagers.
During the summer, the water level in some of the ponds and wells has dried up. Residents have been forced to live without potable water what is considered a basic amenity.
Not that the locals have not brought their sorry plight before the Sarapanch, the BDO of Mahakalapada and the district Collector in regular intervals, but the worry lies with the fact that their appeal has gone unheeded so far.
Even, in past months, the fellow villagers had protested holding pots and buckets before local MlA-cum- Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, while the Minister had visited the village. They had demanded to install a deep bore well along with piped water connection but all in vain.
When contacted, RWSS Assistant Executive Engineer Bibhuti Ranjan Panda stated, “To solve the ongoing problems, a long term process has been taken into hand by the District Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) Department and the preparation of the detailed project report (DPR) is being prepared.” Meanwhile, the local Sarpanch was asked to provide drinking water through tankers.