“How long should I suffer here? If I was young, I would have quit this village,” said Thimme Gowda (70). He is one among a handful of people staying put in Nava Nagar near Gante Naika in Hiregadde Gram Panchayat of Koppa taluk. Except two houses, every other house in this habitation has remained unoccupied for many years. And, the reason is — non availability of drinking water.
Nava Nagar, amidst lush green, is close to the Coffee Research Station of the Coffee Board. Plantation workers, who worked in private estates and the estate of the research station, have built houses here over the last 10-15 years. They built houses as and when they were granted financial benefit under various housing schemes. However, the drinking water facility has remained a dream.
“I have been staying put in the village with my wife for the last 12 years. We have been dependent on an open well. The quantity of water available in the well is insufficient for two families,” Mr. Thimme Gowda said. Besides his family, another family of one Raju, also a plantation worker, are staying put in the village. The remaining people, who built houses in the habitation, have chosen to stay in the CRS Site, another habitation, about 2 km away, where drinking water is available at least once in two days.
The handpump in the habitation has also stopped working. The borewell went dry recently. “I am fed up. Whenever it rains, I fill up containers so that I need not take the trouble of fetching water from the open well,” he said. The residents often go to a planter’s place to fetch water from a private borewell. Susheela, wife of Raju, who also works in a coffee estate, said that despite repeated demands the authorities concerned have not fulfilled the demand. “We can’t go anywhere as we have our house here. Every day it is a hard task to fetch drinking water,” she said.
