Carrying empty pots, the women are drawing attention to the acute water scarcity affecting their community of 470 families from the ST Bhagta tribal group.
Visakhapatnam: The silent yet powerful protest by tribal women from Chalisingam hilltop village in Ravikamatham mandal of Anakapalle district highlights an urgent crisis: the lack of clean drinking water.
Carrying empty pots, the women are drawing attention to the acute water scarcity affecting their community of 470 families from the ST Bhagta tribal group. Traditionally reliant on wells for drinking water, the onset of summer has dried up these vital sources, forcing women to spend hours away from agricultural work in search of water—an increasingly gruelling task with each passing day.
In 2022, NABARD’s Single Villages Scheme was launched, allocating Rs 31 lakh to dig a borewell in C.K. Padu village and establish a pipeline to supply water to the hill community. However, hopes were short-lived as water flowed through the pipes for only two days before the scheme failed and was abandoned entirely.
More recently, `41 lakh was sanctioned under the Jal Jeevan Mission, but progress has been sluggish. Despite a visit in early February by Anakapalle district collector Vijaya Krishnan—who earlier had responded swiftly to a major fire spanning three km in the area—the water crisis remains largely unresolved. A water tank built under the Self-Reliant India (SRI) scheme is yet to become operational, leaving the community dependent on dried-up wells and still waiting for access to clean drinking water.
Despite financial allocations, safe drinking water remains a distant dream for these tribal families. Community leaders such as Chipuru Varalakshmi and Kimudu Saraswati are urging the district collector to take decisive action and ensure the provision of sustainable water facilities for this hilltop community.
