Silvester D’Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (SP)
Kundapur, May 4: Supplying enough drinking water to people living in 101 villages covered by 56 gram panchayats of the taluk has become a mammoth ordeal for the local bodies. One or more areas in each of these villages have been left thirsty because of water scarcity and official apathy. While some gram panchayats have been doing whatever they can to mitigate the hardships of the people, others are turning a blind eye.
The problem of sea water getting mixed with underground water table has become acute in many of the gram panchayats like Gangolli and Tallur, which are located on the seashore.
Villages like Hattiangadi, Chittur, Alur, Karkunje, Kedoor and others, which are situated some distance away from the sea, have another problem on hand. There, drinking water sources have dried up as water table has depleted by a great extent. In some villages, the panchayats have made alternative arrangements, but there is no staff for releasing water to the people.
In the presence of Udupi district in-charge minister, Vinay Kumar Sorake, two meetings had been held about three months back at the taluk panchayat auditorium here to streamline the aspect of tackling water problem during summer months. The minister had sternly told the taluk panchayat executive officer, engineers, and officials in the department of water resources to take remedial steps and address the water problem during summer months within 30 days from then. He had told them then that he does not favour supply of water through tankers to tackle water scarcity.
Once the minister left the meeting, the officials seemed to have lost interest in the subject. As they failed to take any preemptive measures, gram panchayats and villagers are now suffering the consequences. The people’s representatives, who are expected to poke at the officials to act, have been plagued by inertia, while over 50 wells that were dug under grants from the zilla panchayat have dried up. It is said that in several cases, the contractors had filled dry wells with tanker water, and got their bills sanctioned. The officials, who reportedly made money in the form of commission in these bills, have not been able to do anything. A tube well rigged in Hattiangadi has become useless, while drinking water scheme has been misused in Santosh Nagar, Hemmadi. Belur village has abundant water supply, but there is no staff for releasing water to water-starved pockets.
The people are becoming increasingly restless at the total apathy on the part of the officials and people’s representatives alike towards mitigating their problems, in spite of the fact that the media has been bringing their problems to the fore through frequent reports.
Sorake convenes another meeting
Issuing strict instructions to the taluk panchayat officials and elected representatives, minister for urban development and district incharge Vinay Kumar Sorake on Saturday May 3 told the officials to work collectively to come up with a permanent solution to sort out the problem of drinking water in the taluk.
"Villages that are facing shortage of drinking water should be first recognized. Report on such villages should be submitted before May 7. I will put submit a proposal on May 8 in the cabinet meeting to seek support from the state government. I will call another meeting within 10 days, by which time I expect all the problems to be solved," he said.
The minister said officials should address the issue of drinking water much before the escalation of the problem. The problem should be resolved by taking such steps as installation of open wells and borewells, he said, adding that if anyone tries to interfere with work related to digging of wells or borewells in government land, police security would be provided for the work to continue.
"The state government has taken serious note of this issue and will chalk out a permanent solution. Providing water through tankers is not a soluton. Elected representatives along with the officials should work in tandem to bring about a solution to the problem," he said.
He further advised the officials to go for open wells and borewells to provide permanent relief to the parched villages. "No one should obstruct the construction of open wells and borewells on government land," he reiterated.
Installation of meters
To curb miss of water, which is a major cause for the wastage of water, he instructed the officials to ensure installation of meters for every connection. Installation of meters has helped in curbing wastage of water at Kumbhashi village panchayat and increased its availabilty. Thus the experiment could be carried out in other villages too, said zilla panchayat health and education standing committee president Ganapati Sriyan.
on a pilot manner.