Chhatrapur (Ganjam): Have you ever heard of lots being drawn to decide who will go home with a pitcher full of drinking water? Strange as it may sound, it does happen. This rule is followed at Station Road Sahi village in Chhatrapur of Ganjam district. It is bizarre as the town of Chhatrapur is considered as the district headquarters.
There are 20 to 25 families residing in Station Road Sahi village. The locality suffers from lack of drinking water with the advent of every summer.
For the residents, it is not a matter of great regret that their village has only tap delivering water. What is appalling is that water supply happens only for 15 minutes in an entire day.
Initially, the villagers would fight with each other to get a pitcher full of drinking water. This constant quarelling led to the evolvement of the lottery system.
Every day the lots are drawn. When the tap delivers water, the person with the No.1 token gets the first chance to fill up the vessel. Then tokens 2, 3, 4 and 5 follow in sequence to get water. By the time the fifth person reaches the tap, the flow of water diminishes and finally stops. So the others have to return empty-handed.
Sushama Padhy, a local resident narrated the ordeal of the village. “No one realises our problem. One has to experience the hardship to believe it. We have repeatedly informed the RWSS junior engineer about our problems, but to no avail,” she stated.
Echoing the same grievances, R Laxmi, who is Sushama’s neighbour, alleged that she managed to take two pitchers of drinking water back to her house. Now she has been without drinking water for the last couple of days.
When contacted, NAC, executive officer, N Ganesh Babu said the problems faced by residents of Station Road Sahi village has already been informed to the higher officials. “I hope, their problems will soon be addressed,” he said.
Till then amid the gruelling heat, people and their kids have to suffer.
PNN