Baby is among the most sought after persons in Kirgun Wadi in Aurad taluk.
Vijay Lakshmi Pawar, as she is identified in her school records, has a full time job in her summer holidays. She climbs down the open well in her village, scrapes at its bottom to fill pots and ties them to a rope that is pulled up by women. This is the daily routine in the hamlet on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border during summer months. Children are usually lowered down the well as adults can’t climb down the slippery stone walls.
Every summer, all the borewells and open wells dry up in the Wadi save this one. The 400-odd residents of the hamlet have been suffering from this as long as they can remember. “We have got used to this,’’ says Lakshman Pawar, a resident.
Of the two borewells dug by the zilla panchayat this year, one has dried up. The pressure of water in the other is getting reduced everyday.
The hamlet is situated on top a hillock and water source is scarce.
“The only permanent solution would be to recharge ground water by building a check dam or soak pits in the stream that is around 1.5 km from Wadi,’’ said a zilla panchayat official.
Officials have identified 265 villages with an acute drinking water scarcity in the district, including 90 in Aurad taluk. “We are taking up drinking water works on priority,” said P.C. Jaffer, Deputy Commissioner, said, adding they have around Rs. 4.5 crore available under various schemes.
