Karnataka - Bijapur   

90 villages in Bijapur facing drinking water shortage

Bijapur: Bijapur district is reeling under acute shortage of drinking water and agricultural activities have come to a standstill owing to failure of rainfall for the last two months.

The district administration has identified 90 villages which are facing drinking water scarcity. As many as 35 of these villages are facing acute shortage of water. The worst affected taluk in the district is Muddebihal in which most of the villages are facing shortage of water.

Steps are being taken to supply water to these villages from alternative sources.

The district administration had directed the Bijapur Zilla Panchayat to conduct a survey of these villages and study the feasibility of drilling more borewells to meet the drinking water requirement.

Accordingly, the zilla panchayat has identified alternative sources of water in these villages and preparations are on to drill borewells. The district administration has promised to provide financial assistance for purchase of pipes and other equipment required for the purpose.

The cost of digging a borewell is estimated at Rs. 1 lakh.

According to the Government’s directions, in-charge Deputy Commissioner S.M. Sonnad has taken over two private borewells in Roogi and Tadavalaga villages of Indi taluk and water is being supplied to nearby villages from these borewells. The owners of these borewells will be paid Rs. 5,000 a month. On the instructions of the Minister concerned, water was released to canals in Indi, Muddebihal and Sindagi taluks two days ago.

Also, the administration has identified alternative cropping patterns and farmers are being encouraged to grow sunflower and maize.

As farming activities have come to a standstill, agricultural workers have started registering their names under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. There has been a rise in the number of agricultural workers registering under the scheme in the district since April. So far, 84,888 such workers have registered their names under the scheme in the district.

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