Balasore: People are facing an acute shortage of drinking water in Balasore district. This has triggered public anger against the authorities here for failing to repair dysfunctional tube-wells.
Department sources said there are 20,026 tube-wells in Balasore district. But the authorities are not paying attention to repairing tube-wells set up under the Rural Water Supply & Sanitation (RWSS) programme.
The excessive summer heat and humidity, frequent power outages, thunderstorms and the devastating cyclone Fani has hit drinking water projects. The people here have turned to tube-wells as they have no other choice, but officials have failed to repair them.
Around 75 of the 1,225 tube-wells in Simulia block, 81 of the 1,930 tube-wells in Khaira block, 101 of the 1,770 tube-wells in Soro block, 118 of the 1,101 tube-wells in Oupada block, 124 of the 1,365 tube-wells in Bahanaga block, 168 of the 1,438 tube-wells in Nilagiri block, 193 of the 1,947 tube-wells in Remuna block, 202 of the 2,347 tube-wells at the district headquarters, 209 of the 1,524 tube-wells in Basta block, 107 of the 2,201 tube-wells in Bhograi block, 267 of the 1,358 tube-wells in Baliapal block and 80 of the 1,790 tube-wells in Jaleswar block are dysfunctional.
RWSS authorities have repaired only 1,729 tube-wells so far. Although, there is shortage of drinking water all over Balasore district, it is acute in the blocks of Nilagiri, Oupada and Khaira.
The worse affected panchayats of Nilagiri block are Sajanagarh, Siadimala, Jadida, Mahisapata and Naranpur.
Similarly, the worse affected panchayats in Oupada block are Gadasahi, Fatepur, Shyamsundarpur, Baunsabania, Ararpur and Aghirapada. Likewise, the worse affected panchayats of Khaira block are Baunsagadia, Ratina, Haripur, Gadapokhari, Kaithagadia and Kupari.
Apart from the above mentioned panchayats, there is water shortage in Raibania, Sardarbandh, Shyamnagar, Khuada, Kamardha, Kalika and Gopinathpur panchayats of Jaleswar block, including three panchayats of Basta block.
In many places people are walking around two km for a bucket of water. They are also filing written complaints with the district administration and department authorities. In some places, people have started protests and road blockades.
On being contacted, the officer in charge of RWSS, Sukumar Nayak said, “The department has mobile teams at both the block and municipality levels for repairing tube-wells. When we get complaints the team visits the locations and repairs tube-wells.”
The outer repairing works are done by self employed mechanics (SEMs) and the inner repairing by the mobile team. Our department has adequate spare parts in sarpanch and block offices. Usually, we get complaints almost every day and we try to solve the problems immediately, Sukumar added.