Tapping hope to end woes of parched land
Several villages in Sonbhadra district of eastern UP face a serious drinking water crisis throughout year and the situation worsens in summer
VARANASI: The reality of a water-scarce existence dawns on residents of Khajuri village in Myorpur area of Sonbhadra district every morning. Soon after waking up, the villagers have to walk around a kilometre to fetch water from a deep raw well, near a dry rivulet in the vicinity of a jungle on outskirts of their village.
The group which has to trudge for water includes Sunita Devi Gond, Manmati Gond, Kulwanti, Devakali Gond, and Rajvanti, a student of class 7. Known as kachcha kuan in the local dialect, the raw well is the only source of water for consumption, bathing and other daily needs in the area.
The predicament of the residents of Khajuri village is not an isolated instance. The lack of drinking water has been a common problem in over 300 villages of Sonbhadra district for over six decades. These over 300 villages have a population of over 50,000. Sonbhadra district itself has a population of around 19 lakh.
The villages of Kuldomari, Son Nagar, Goru Khad, Majhauli, Banpaisa, Agaria Tola, Bharahari, Garha Barrier, Pachferia and several others in Duddhi, Myorpur, Ghorawal and Babhani areas face the drinking water crisis, says social worker Jagat and adds the water crisis
deepens in summer.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SONBHADRA
Sonbhadra is known as the eastern gateway to Uttar Pradesh as the district shares its boundaries with the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The district is rich in natural resources. It is blessed with rivers like the Belan, the Karmnasha, the Son, the Rihand and Kanhar. Despite that, it lacks sufficient drinking water.
TRUDGING THRICE A DAY “We have to go to the well at least thrice daily to fetch water. This is our daily routine. Our day begins with fetching water. We have no choice. If we have to drink water, we have to do it,” Sunita Devi says and adds that in summer, they have to dig the well almost daily to meet their water needs.
Jagat, who works for providing clean drinking water to the locals, says, “I am in my late forties. Since childhood, I have seen water scarcity in the region. In over 200 villages, locals depend on the kachcha kuan for drinking water, bathing and other needs. Clean drinking water is a luxury for the locals.”
The rivulets have water during the rainy season but dry up two to three months later.
Thereafter, the locals excavate 10 to 15-feet deep raw wells near rivulets and streamlets to get water. They even collect water from the drains and drink the same, Jagat says.
As locals have to drink water from rivulets and wells, many of them suffer from water-borne diseases.
Nevertheless, the Har Ghar Nal scheme launched recently has given a ray of hope, Jagat says, and adds that if it is implemented successfully, it will be a boon for the district.
FREEDOM FROM DISEASE Locals say they will be free of waterborne diseases, if they start getting clean drinking water. They hope the scheme will get them clean, piped drinking water.
The Rs 5,555 crore Har Ghar Nal scheme was launched on November 22 with an objective to provide clean drinking water in about 3,000 villages of Sonbhadra and Mirzapur districts. The scheme is to be completed by early 2022. It is expected to benefit 19,53,458 people in 1,389 villages of Sonbhadra and 21,87,980 people of 1,606 villages in Mirzapur.
Ajay Shekhar, an octogenarian social worker who served as chairman of Robertsganj Nagar Palika in the 1970s, said the Har Ghar Nal scheme, recently launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, was a good scheme, provided it was implemented seriously or else it would meet the fate of other schemes started by previous governments.
District administration officials said the scheme had been launched after a lot of homework. On the instructions of the chief minister, a survey identified over 1300 villages that lacked piped clean drinking water. Sources of surface water were also identified during the survey. Thereafter, 14 potable water schemes named after each area were made and launched under the Har Ghar Nal scheme.
WATER FROM RESERVOIRS, DAMS Sonbhadra district magistrate S Rajalingam said, “Work on the Har Ghar Nal scheme has been started. It will ensure clean drinking water supply to the locals in 1389 villages of the district through pipelines. Groundwater will not be used. Surface water stored in dams and reservoirs in the district will be purified and supplied to the locals through pipelines.”
The pipelines will be laid between the villages and the reservoir or dam in the respective areas. Filter plants for water purification will also be set up. Sonbhadra, which is also the hub of power generation, has the Rihand Dam, Dhadhraul (Ghaghar Dam), Nagwa Dam, and four to five small dams and rivers like Renuka and Kanhar.
WHAT PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS DID
The previous governments launched potable water schemes like the Dhoba pump canal scheme and the Kowatha potable water scheme during the Congress rule in the mid-1970s and the early 1980s. During its rule, the Samajwadi Party launched the Patwadh potable water scheme and DhandharaulRobertsganj potable water scheme, but the schemes went into cold storage with a change of guard in the state, claimed SP and Congress leaders.
Ajay Shekhar, who served as chairman of Robertsganj Nagar Palika in the 1970s, recalled: “There was a serious crisis of clean drinking water in Robertsganj (in 1971). But the officials were not ready to listen to us. Then I started a hunger strike. After five days, the then government approved construction of a water tank and setting up of a water filter unit in Robertsganj. Thereafter, I ended the hunger strike and Robertsganj got clean drinking water supply.”
Under the Dhoba pump canal scheme, water supply was ensured to around 100 villages, said former district Congress chief Arun Kumar Singh. He added that a water tank was constructed in Kowatha village in Ghorawal area in 1983 to supply clean water to 50 villages.
The scheme to supply piped water to remote villages in Sonbhadra was made in 2012 under the UPA-2 government when Jairam Ramesh was the union rural development minister, he said. But it could not be implemented as UPA lost power, Singh added.
Samajwadi Party (SP) national executive member and former MLA Avinash Kushwaha said the SP government led by Akhilesh Yadav launched the Dhandhraul-Robertsganj potable water scheme involving an estimated cost of Rs 98 crore and Padwadh Gram Samuh Payjal Yojna involving a cost of Rs 67 crore in 2015 and 2016 respectively, to make piped clean drinking water available to the villagers. Over 50% of work, like setting up filter plant and laying of pipeline, was done, but couldn’t be completed as the party lost power in 2017, he added.
Kushwaha alleged that BJP government renamed the schemes launched by the SP government and branded them as their own.
However, BJP leader Bhupesh Chaube rejected the claim and said that this was the first time in the history of the district that the BJP government led by Adityanath resolved to ensure clean piped water to every house in the district.