Jhumpura: Shortage of drinking water has multiplied the woes of villagers in tribal-dominated Keonjhar district. The inertia of civic bodies is worsening the situation, residents alleged.
The tribal residents of Jhumpura block here are forced to drink polluted water from canals and ponds.
The villagers have alleged that a large number of tubewells here are not working and the authorities are not paying any attention to repair these.
According to the administration, there are 22 panchayats and 154 villages in this block out of which 150 are revenue villages. About 1.14 lakh people reside in these villages. There are 1585 tubewells in the block but a large number of them remain nonfunctional. The administration doesn’t even have any data pertaining to the number of tubewells in order and the number of tubewells that need repair.
As many as 31 small pipeline projects had been launched here to provide drinking water to 50, 000 residents. That said, the residents of Khendara, Nahbeda and Asuki villages are suffering as the pipeline projects in these places remain nonfunctional.
A tender has been passed to set up of 152 solar system based tubewell at Basantpur, Nayagarh, Malda and Kutugaon panchayat but only 76 tubewells has been set up in two years, shows official data.
When asked, engineers Mohan Singh and Subhasmita Khamari said, “The contractors are failing to repair dysfunctional tubewells and complete the work on time.”
PNN