The Odisha Krushak Mahasangha (OKM) has urged the State Government to stop digging deep bore-wells in the hilly areas so that manmade water famine can be checked.
“Water famine has been seen in hilly areas in different parts of the world due to installation of deep tube wells for irrigation and other purposes. General tube wells and open tube wells are dried up, causing sheer shortage of water for daily use. Hence, digging of deep wells in hilly areas in the State should be stopped immediately,” demanded OKM president Bibhudhendra Pratap Das in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently.
Stating that 80 per cent of tube wells in uplands have already dried up, Das, a former MlA, brought to the Chief Minister’s notice that shortage of groundwater in Syria caused of exodus of civilians and led to a civil war.
Das too cited a few such examples from Odisha in the letter. “Responding to repeated demands for providing drinking water, the RWSS had on June 12 dug a tube well till 400 feet with a developed drilling machine in Padasahi village under Cuttack district’s Baranga area but no drinking water was found. Only black silts came out,” Das apprised the Chief Minister.
He suggested that funds allocated for deep bore wells be diverted for construction of WHS and check dams for conservation of water for irrigation purposes.