At a time when there is ample water in every reservoir, well and in hand-pump, the villagers of Banaso are facing acute drinking water shortage. It is a village about 5 kms away from block headquarters Vishnugarh and hardly 2-3 kms away from the famous Konar Dam.
Everything was on the track till the third week of November but suddenly the water level of the wells of village started going down.
In just two to three weeks about 40 to 45 wells of the village have become dry and even the hand-pumps have started not giving water since last one week. Banaso is a part of Mandu Assembly segment and its representative JP Patel was the PHED Minister in Hemant Government. His native house is also not far away from Banaso which is also famous for its Mahamaya Temple.
There is a water tank of PHED department in this village and more than 100 houses have taken pipeline connection from the department but since last more than 6 months the department is not supplying water to its consumers. The department was using the water of a large well especially built near the Mahamaya Temple for supplying water in the village but 6 months ago during road repairing work the pipeline broke at many places which has yet not been repaired.
This sudden problem has arisen due to the Konar Irrigation Project which was started in the 70s and is still incomplete. Villagers say that after about 20 years government once again looked into this project and the work of connecting the tunnels was given to a Mumbai based company. The tunnels of this irrigation projects passes Banaso under the ground. On 19th November the company finalized the work of connecting the tunnels and water level of the village started going down.
Experts say that it was the accumulated water in the tunnels which was maintaining the water level of the village since last few years. Even the PHED department was using water of tunnel no. 9 to supply in the village. As the tunnels got joined water inside flows away and it resulted into decline of water level.
Though the Mumbai based company which has taken the work of completing the project is supplying drinking water to the villagers but it is not enough. In winter the villagers are managing but what will be the situation in the days to come can easily be imagined.
The engineers of PHED say that they have demanded for a deep boring near the water tank and now we have planned to supply water by taking water from that boring. Since it is election time so sanction has not come but it is hoped that soon the department will sanction it. When asked about the difference in number of houses and number of consumers, they said that most of the villagers are of below poverty line so they are not able to pay the amount but we will also give water to them through stand posts on road sides.