At a time when government agencies have failed to quench the thirst of villagers in drought-hit Kalaburagi district, a private trust is going out of its way to supply drinking water to villagers by tankers.
Sharanamma Diggavi Memorial Trust, headed by educationist Basavaraj Diggavi, which played a pivotal role in establishing the first goshala in the district and helped save hundreds of cattle from going to the slaughterhouse in November last year, has once again proved a role model for others.
Chandu Loku Naik, a village elder of Machanal tanda (hamlet) in Kalaburagi taluk, which has a population of about 1,000, told The Hindu that the villagers have been facing drinking water shortage for the last three months, with borewells drying up and the groundwater level depleting steeply.
The people were almost entirely dependent on an open well located in a private land 1 km away. Two months ago, the borewell stopped yielding water and a few weeks ago, the owner of the private plot stopped allowing the villagers to draw water from the well citing fall in water level.
“Since then, it has been difficult for us to get even a pail of water. The women and children had to walk two or three kilometres to fetch water from private borewells and open wells in neighbouring villages,” he said.
Moved by the plight of the villagers, Diggavi, the chairman of the trust, decided to start supplying water to the tanda a week ago. When the water tanker arranged by the trust entered the village on April 24, there were joyous scenes, with women and young children surrounding it with plastic pots to get their share of water.
Mr. Diggavi said the trust plans to provide the tanda 40,000 litres of water every day.
He added that the trust plans to supply drinking water to Machinal tanda and at least six other neighbouring villages, including Melkunda (K) and (B), which too are facing water crisis.
Machanal tanda
has about 1,000 residents, and has been facing severe water shortage
