Soaring mercury has caused a serious water crisis in different parts of the coal-rich Jharsuguda district. After an acute crisis in Brajrajnagar's urban areas that led to some MCl workers stall production, the slum dwellers of Brajrajnagar are now facing drinking water shortage.
With the major source of drinking water in Chuna and Intbhatta area of Brajrajnagar Municipality going dry, people living around 2,000-odd slum areas are forced to depend on water tankers which are not enough to cater to the need.
Due to open cast and underground mining, the local people have been facing serious water crisis, it is said.
As the problem of water shortage has been increasing by the day, slum-dwellers are being forced to fetch water from other sources.
Jayanti Suna, a resident of Chuna Bhatta, said, "We walk for more than a km everyday with bucket to fetch water from a municipality water tap that supplies water for only a few hours in the day and that too at a very low pressure.” She added that this ensues long queues and disputes amongst slum dwellers.
Jagat Ram, another resident of the area, echoed the same problem. He said, "Everyday for a single bucket of water, we have to stand in queues for up to 2.5 hours. When we complained about the issue to the municipal authority, we were told that water tankers are being sent by the municipality and a few days later, even that would not be available regularly as the river has dried up."
Villagers of Junanimunda, Kuttabaga, Chuwakani, Sanjob, Abhaypur and Ganganagar are also facing the same problem.
However, when contacted, Brajrajnagar Municipality officials said that the water supply is same as earlier and water is being provided as per time schedule.