Acute drinking water crisis in TS, but no special fund for new borewells, repairs
ADILABAD: The public representatives of elected local bodies in Telangana State are under pressure from people for more borewells and repairs to the defunct ones. However, the state government has stopped funding such works after the launch of Mission Bhagiratha.
The alternative is the release of special funds from the Zilla Parishads -- unlike in the past when gram panchayats and mandals earmarked funds for borewell repairs and for digging new ones.
Some elected MPTCs and Sarpanches are releasing money from their official funds and getting the borewells repaired so as to meet the water needs of the people at the onset of the summer season. These representatives say this alone would not suffice and hence their plea to the state government to allocate special funds for the works on an urgent basis.
People in some villages are bringing drinking water by vehicles from long distances and many women are spending the whole day in queues at the local borewell to fetch water in various villages.
Adding to the problem, district officials have stopped supplying drinking water by tankers even to the villages that are facing a very serious water crisis. The tribal and hilly areas are the worst affected. The situation there is getting worse with the steady rise in temperatures. Water bodies are fast drying up in the Adilabad region.
Inhabitants of interior areas, especially Adivasis depending on streams and rivulets as their main water sources during the summer, are faced with hard times this summer. These water bodies are also on the verge of getting dried up as the heat keeps rising.
Interior villages and hilly areas in Indravelli, Gadiguda, Narnoor, Utnoor, Sirikonda, Boath, Ichoda, Lingapur, Tiryani, Sirpur (U), Wankidi and Kerameri mandals in Adilabad region are among the worst-hit.
Last year, Asifabad MLA Atram Sakku dug up borewells at his own initiative in some villages that faced an acute drinking water problem. He sought special funds from the state government for digging up more borewells in the villages.
Pandra Jayavanth Rao, MPP of Utnoor, said the two bore wells were repaired in Chaprala and Guttaguda villages in Ghanpur gram panchayat with ITDA funds last year. “There are no special funds for borewell repairs and for digging new borewells in the villages, especially during the summer to resolve the drinking water problem,” he said.
The drinking water problem is acute in Dharmajipet, Rajulguda, Vadgalpur, Errachelka, Keshakunta and Gottipatar in Utnoor mandal, as per reports received here.
