Bidar: Do the Gods love a good drought, too?

Bidar: So acute is the water crisis in Bidar that it is affecting almost every aspect of life in the district. While people are struggling for supply of drinking water, hospitals are having a hard time  handling  delivery cases and treating dialysis patients.  Religious tourism too has taken a hit.

Expectant mothers are being turned by the Aurad taluk General Hospital, which has suspended handling of delivery cases and the Humnabad Government Hospital has shut down its dialysis unit due to the serious water crisis,  badly affecting poor patients in both  taluk headquarters.

According to sources, the dialysis centre in the Humnabad government hospital has been closed since March 18 as its borewell has dried up. The hospital needs about 9,000 litres of water day.

While District Health Officer, Dr Baburao Hudagikar has written to the Humnabad  tahasildar asking for supply of water, tanker water cannot be used for dialysis, making the situation more distressing.

Patients, who depended on the Humnabad unit, now travel over 100 kms to get to the   alternative dialysis unit in Bidar city or shell out Rs 1200 for a dialysis at a local private hospital.

Religious tourism too has taken a beating  in the historical city. Devotees visiting the Narasimha Zarni Temple usually wade through 4ft deep water inside a cave for about 500 meters for a darshan of the sitting deity, Lord Narasimha. But the temple has remained closed for the last two months as the natural cave does not have enough water now, making it impossible for devotees to carry out the ritual.

Sikhs visiting the Gurunanak Zarni, drink the water of a natural spring here as they believe it can cure them of illnesses, but with the spring drying up this year, many have chosen to stay away.

So severe is the drought that many are afraid the  district could be heading for one similar to the one in 1972-73, which  led to mass migration of people and perishing of cattle.

With two more months to go before the onset of monsoon, the people are shuddering at the thought of what  awaits them. A decade ago open wells in the backyards of homes brimmed with water during the rainy season and still continued to supply water in summer.

But the poor rainfall of  the last few years has seen the water table fall by over 21.53 meters, the worst in a decade. The situation is even more distressing in the rural areas of Bhalki, Aurad and Basavakalyakana taluks.

Water politics
Both Congress MLA, Rahim Khan and his rival,  BJP’s Prakash Khandre, are supplying water free of cost to the people here.

Mr Rahim Khan, who runs a chain of educational instutions, began free supply of water to the people after his defeat  in the 2013 Assembly elections and seeing how this  has paid off for him, Mr Khandre too has now joined in.

Meanwhile, Mr Suryakanth,  son of the late Nagamarapalli, who is trying to make a foray into politics, is also preparing the ground by deploying his own water tankers in the city. He is learnt to have placed orders with a Dubai based company for supply of large capacity double-decker tankers.