CHITRADURGA: The severe drought in the district has not only caused a drinking water crisis, but has also affected dialysis patients at the district hospital. On Wednesday morning, about five to six patients were forced to return due to water shortage.
The dialysis unit of the district hospital needs about 12,000 litres of water, however, about 8,000 litres of water is made available with great difficulty. Some elected representatives often hinder the transportation of water tanker to the hospital, stating that they want to supply water to voters first.
The hospital has nine beds and about 27 patients can be treated in three sessions, with each session of 4 hours. However, regularly, 22 patients come to the centre for treatment, which means a minimum of 10,000 litres of water is necessary. Since the crisis aggravated in February with the borewells drying up, the hospital authorities became completely dependant on Chitradurga Municipal Corporation water supply. However, frequent breakdown of pipes made the situation miserable.