Despite repeated appeals by the villagers for a solution of the endemic water problem during summer, the Gajapati district administration failed to take any initiatives.
The problem is so acute that as many as 61 families of Maliara village of Ukhura Panchayat under Gumma block had no alternative but leave the village in absence of sufficient water this summer.The villagers alleged they did not get enough water for cultivation and daily needs. Since the administration remained apathetic to their woes, they decided to quit the village.
They narrated that although there were two tube wells in the village, but while the one was completely defunct, the other was producing water with heavy iron content, not suitable for consumption. There are also two wells in the village but they go dry during summer season, said the villagers. They lamented that they had to fall back on stream water in another village and for which they had to walk a long distance to fetch water every day.