When men join women in collecting water in Agency villages of Adilabad and neighbouring districts, it only means that the tribal people are facing water shortage. Normally, it is the women who fetch all the water required by the household every day.
The mandals which are facing acute water shortage are Narnoor, Utnoor and Indervelli in Adilabad district and Jainoor, Sirpur, Lingapur and Kerameri in Kumram Bheem Asifabad. The open wells and bore wells have gone dry and people are going long distances to fetch water.
Official data
However, the data supplied by the Goundwater Department tells a different tale. It talks of an unusually high level of ground water, which does not conform with the reality.
For example, the average depth of water in Narnoor mandal in February this year was 3.55 metre but villages like Kampur Madhapur, Kundi Pipri, Chorgaon, Sungapur and Ganeshpur are already in the grips of water crisis. The only functional borewell in three hamlets of Sungapur partly caters to the needs of as many as 270 households.
In neighbouring Jainoor mandal, Nandunaik Tanda, Mamidipalli and Lendijala villages are facing water scarcity. In Sirpur (U) Pangdi village faced a shortage while in Lingapur mandal Raghapur, Pittaguda villages have reported drying up of open and bore wells.
In Indervelli mandal, the villages located on hilly areas like Gattepalli, Chitthaguda, Nizamguda, Mamidiguda and Pittaguda Kolamguda are in the throes of water crisis.
Water scheme
The Kumram Bheem Drinking Water Supply Scheme (KBDWSS) being laid at a cost of ₹150 crore to supply drinking water to over 225 habitations in the Agency areas of Adilabad and Kumram Bheem district continues to be in limbo thanks to its faulty design. Work on it had started in 2008 and water is flowing in the main pipeline since the last one year.
The KBDWSS envisages supply of 48 litres of water per individual per day from the Kumram Bheem reservoir in Asifabad mandal. The government has planned to enhance the daily allocation to 100 litres through the Telangana State Water Grid pipeline being laid along the KBDWSS.