NO END TO WATER WOES TO NUAPADA VILLAGERS
Thursday, 09 March 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar
Sixty households of Sagundongri village in Khariar block of Nuapada district now solely depend on a single water seller to get their drinking water as all the water sources in their village have either dried up or become unfit for use.
“We have been buying water since last two years,” say the villagers. Their succinct answer for the question why since last two years is, “Our water kills us.”
To further affirm their statement, they call Hemanta Banchhor (58) of their villagers and ask him to narrate his problem. “I am taking medicine for last two years from a doctor of Nuapada, who tells that I have kidney problem, which has been caused due to the water I drink,” says Banchhor.
As per the villagers, at least 13 persons of the village have died of kidney-related problems in last 10 years and two are now under treatment. “The doctors in Nuapada, Burla and Raipur who treated the diseased persons of our village have said that drinking water is the cause of kidney diseases,” say the villagers.
The village has three tube-wells and three ponds. The tube-well water contains lime (the village comes under a lime stone mine area). All the ponds dry up during the summer. Those who are capable of paying buy water, but about forty poor households depend on river Sundar located at a distance of three and a half km away from the village. “How can we spend half of our earning on water,” they ask.
River Sundar, which originates from the Sunabeda plateau of Nuapada district, is the lifeline for hundreds of villages of Komna and Khariar blocks. It has been dammed at two places. The first one near village Jadamunda is a Medium Irrigation Project and the second one under construction is near village Tikhali known as the Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP). After the construction of the LIIP, the flow downstream totally dries during summer, creating a lot of hardship for the people of about 25 villages.
More than three thousand acre of land on both sides of the river downstream of LIIP are now lying barren during Rabi. The crops include banana, sugarcane, wheat, vegetables, groundnut and onion in addition to the usual crop paddy.
“We are concerned that the crop coverage has shrunk, but, more than that, we are worried because the river rapidly dries up after December,” says Kshirasindhu Sagaria of Kushmal village. Sanjay Tiwari, BJP Krushak Morcha president, criticises the lackadaisical attitude of the LIIP authority. “The project authority is not at all concerned about the problem of people. They could have diverted the flow of the main canals to feed the downstream but are not doing that,” he complains.
Added to the villagers’ owe is the rampant sand mining from the river. It has severely affected the sand layer everywhere. “There is no possibility of increase in sand layer now as the dam has stopped the flow and on the other hand there is mining, how can the river carry water in summer,” asks Tiwari.
Kushmal has a population of about 2,500. There are about 400 households. The villagers are fully dependent on river Sundar for water. They dug shallow holes on the sand bed and collect water.
“We spend two hours daily for fetching water,” says Arati Sagaria and Tikemani Kata, two college students, while filling their pots (garia) by pouring water from the holes. They are reading in a women’s college at Khariar, six km far from their village. “We spend at least two hours daily for fetching water and two hours for going to the college,” they say, stating that it encroaches upon their study hours.
Kushmal has 30 tube-wells, but all are fluoride-affected. The tanks and WHSs dry up in summer. “The only source is our Sundar, but it is also drying,” lament the villagers. The story narrated by the people of Jhalkushum, Mandosil, Birighat, Turli, Nehena, Sanduhel and many other riverside villages are the same. The women are the hardest-hit.
“You had come last year to our village to take photographs. This year you have come again. Don’t take any more photographs,” screams a 50-year-old woman while climbing the embankment of the river carrying a garia.
On arrival of summer, water becomes the most valuable commodity in all these villages. The elected representatives are scolded by the people, especially women, during the election campaign. But once the elections are over, everything calms down, and the struggle for women goes on.
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