“We did a mistake in believing the officials and participated in the polling. It is over six months now but our drinking water problem has remained unresolved.” This has been the common grouse of the people in general, and women in particular, in Haraginadoni village in Ballari taluk.
“Once in two days a tanker-mounted tractor arrives on our lane and we have to collect water for our utility purposes. Each family is able to get eight to 10 pots of water. For drinking, we are dependent on the only RO plant and that too, we are not sure of getting two pots of water a day,” Rangamma, an elderly woman of the village, told The Hindu .
“To overcome the shortage of water, we are forced to make use of use-and-throw plates, made of paper or leaves,” she adds.
As The Hindu visited the village on Monday, a tanker had arrived and all women folk were busy collecting water in as many pots as they can. At the other end of the lane, women folks with a large number of pots kept in a queue were seen waiting for the arrival of the tanker. According to women themselves, skirmishes and wordy duels while collecting water were not uncommon.
People of this village, to draw the attention of the authorities and elected representatives, had boycotted the polling during the byelections to the Lok Sabha in November 2018. To prevail upon them to withdraw their decision, the district administration approached them and assured them of solving their problem at the earliest.
Officials said that there was a proposal to construct an impounding reservoir and fill it with Tungabhadra river water. Six months have gone by but the project has not seen the light of day.
Meanwhile, another Lok Sabha elections came in April 2019 and the people announced their decision to boycott them.
The officials met them again and prevailed upon them to participate in the polling saying that the proposal had been approved and it would be implemented at the earliest, following which the people obliged to cast their votes.
“There are around 800 houses with a population ranging between 4,000 and 5,000. We have not seen good rainfall after 2010. As such, all the borewells have gone dry resulting in severe water shortage for drinking and our land has remained uncultivated. As the water problem has become so acute that there is no water for drinking and utility, a majority of the people have stopped bathing. Children are sent to their grandparents in other villages as an alternative to overcome water shortage here,” Eeranna, gram panchayat member, pointed out.
The people are eagerly waiting for their chronic problem to come to an end. When, is still a question mark.
