KENDRAPARA: Supply of contaminated water through tankers has added to the trouble of the people of 48 seaside villages in Mahakalpada block of the district. The villagers, who are struggling for every drop with most of the natural sources drying up, have no option but to consume the unsafe water.
Around 1.8 lakh people of the seaside villages are being supplied polluted yellow-coloured water by the authorities. With decline in groundwater level and several tubewells going defunct, some women walk miles to fetch water from far away villages. Some of the worst affected villages are Tikarapanga, Naladia, Dekani, Khurasia, Sanagaon, Gojabandha, Barakandha, Patalipanka, Dasarajpur, Ramanagar, Suniti, Kharinasi, Kajalapatia, Bagabatia, Jamboo, Baulakani, Bahakuda and Kansarbadadandua.
A villager, Ashok Parida of Gojabandha, said the Government had promised to arrange water supply to their village from river Luna. “While the ambitious plan is yet to take off, repair of two borewells too has not been carried out in Gojabandha because of which villagers trek 2 km to collect water from a borewell,” said Parida.
Rabindranath Nayak, Sarpanch of Patalipanka panchayat, said they had urged the authorities concerned to supply drinking water through tankers. But to their surprise, the water supplied by Rural Water Sanitation Scheme (RWSS) through tankers is yellow in colour and the buckets that are used to store water have a yellow coating, he added.
“We are forced to drink yellow water as three tubewells in our village are not functioning,” said Pramod Barik of Patalipanka.
Several villagers are suffering from waterborne diseases by drinking polluted water. While only a handful of conscious villagers boil the water before consumption, most of them drink water from ponds and other sources without filtering it, said Bhagawan Mandal (45) of Kansarbadadandua village.
RWSS engineer Prasanta Nayak said the rural water supply centre at Dekani village is not functioning properly due to illegal tapping of water by some villagers. “Because of this, we are unable to lift sufficient water to supply to the villagers. At many places, the groundwater supplied by borewells has turned yellow but we have no option but to provide the same. The villagers have been advised to consume the water after boiling,” he added.