(Palakkad): Though living close to Kerala’s largest drinking water reservoir, half-a-dozen Muduga tribal settlements in and around Akamalavaram located on the eastern border of Malampuzha dam are yet to get the water supply scheme promised by the political leadership for the last three decades. With an alarming deficiency of water storage in the Malampuzha dam and its reservoir this year, over 100 families of tribespeople have to walk for kilometres on the bed of the reservoir to fetch water in plastic buckets. Some others prefer to dig pits on the dried bed to draw a few buckets of muddy water. The worst affected are the inmates of the Kollamkund tribal settlement.
“It is part of my daily routine to carry water from a distant location of the reservoir every morning and evening to meet the drinking needs of my eight-member family. I do this despite suffering from a number of physical ailments. Even during the last Assembly election, there were promises of making available safe drinking water through a comprehensive water supply scheme,” said A Sreenivasan, a member of the settlement.
Same is the case of other settlements in the locality such as Elivaal, Kadithod, Pookkund and Elavatham Para. They are homeless in the absence of a proper rehabilitation package. Now they are living on illegally occupied portions of land owned originally by the Water Resources Department.
“Malampuzha Dam meets the drinking water needs of people in a vast area comprising three municipalities and two dozen grama panchayats. However, the dam has not benefited those of us who sacrificed our land holdings for the larger interests of society,” said Vellachi, another resident of Kollamkund settlement. All these settlements lack any permanent houses mainly because of the lack of land ownership by the tribal inmates. Apart from having ration cards, these people are not getting any benefits meant for the Scheduled Tribes.
“We are facing discrimination for long. Water is there in the reservoir but we do not have a drop to drink. Nobody is concerned of our plight,” said Omana, a resident of Pookkund colony.
“Non tribal areas of Akamalavaram are getting drinking water supplied using trucks. As far as the tribal colonies are concerned, trucks would not reach them because of the lack of road access,” said M Gopalan, a local social worker.
