Two pictures, one of a well and another of a water purifying facility, in a remote village tell the painful tale of people facing difficulties in drought hit Palamu.
The first picture of a well behind the house of Pinki Devi of Guryahee Tola under Kachan panchayat of Ramgarh block shows that the well is no well at all. It looks like any clogged water cell. However, Pinki Devi and others use this water for all cycles of life those drinking, cooking and washing utensils too. This is an all season well. None knows here to treat its water with potassium permanganate or lime. It looks most turbid.
Pinki Devi lives with her baby at home with her elderly mother. Her husband Santosh Ram has gone to Vishakhapattnam. Pinki Devi is a Harijan lady but is far more advanced than many other literate women of her age in such a non-descript place.
“Hum sab ee hai pani is kuan ka peeyat hain. Doser koi upay nai khay (We use this water of this well as there is no other source of water here),” lamented Pinki Devi. She will be happy if she gets a well here from the government.
The water in this well that one can see from above looks contaminated to any outsider, who peeps into it but call it a miracle or God’s special blessing here that the poor, who use this water are fit and healthy. If at all they suffer it is typhoid fever and loose motion. These poor people do not agree that these ailments are purely water born ones.
Barely 500 feet away from this dilapidated well at this hamlet is the picture of water supply where on four iron bars is stretched an iron sheet on which lie five cylinders all for purifying the water for its supply but on the ground there is nothing except weeds and grasses. Three of the five cylinders are big ones. They look connected but sans any water.
Chandrashekhar Prasad of this hamlet who is a spice seller said, “Some three years back this rural water supply scheme came here. This structure was built. There came no drop of water. We do not know for what good reasons these cylinders are up in the sky here. We feel we are jeered and booed by it.” Jeyesh Ranjan alias Bittu Pathak Palamu district Congress president and his aide Avinash Gupta Fauji and Chhotu Singh have urged DC, Palamu to send a team of officials there in this hamlet to see the ground reality.
DC Palamu Shanatnu Kumar Agrahari when apprised of this said,”I will ask DDC to send Ramgarh block level officials to this hamlet look into this matter.” He said DDC will see that schemes under MGNREGA here take off immediately to stop any exit of unskilled work force from here to other places outside the state.
Agrahari further said, “I will ask drinking water & sanitation department officials to check as to how drinking water facility here at this hamlet is in such a shamble.” DDC Palamu Bindu Madhav Prasad Singh assured that BDO Ramgarh will not only inspect this hamlet but will suggest measures also to mitigate the sufferings of the poor there. The DDC said all efforts would be done to ensure safe drinking water here.