VELLORE:Dawn is breaking in Kal Pudur near Walajah. The entire area is resplendant in an orangish hue and the effect on the nearby Ammur Reserve Forest is kaleidoscopic. But, S Kamatchi has no time to lounge and take in the beauty of nature. A four-km-long trek awaits her. She quickly brushes off the remnants of last night’s sleep and makes her way out. She is soon joined by a few other women — all together in their single-minded pursuit of two pots of water.
Nestled on outskirts of rustic Walajah, four villages under two panchayats have been reeling under acute water crisis. Pipes have been running dry, ponds parched and groundwater table lower than ever before.
Home to around 1,500 families, these villages — Vilvanathapuram, Kal Pudur and Erukkathotti under Kal Mel Kuppam panchayat and Katharikuppam on the border Ammur Reserve Forest — have not seen water trickle out of the panchayat pipelines for the past six months. The crisis here is very real.
Notwithstanding the poor monsoon, the villagers feel they were let down by the officials, who were warned time and again of the impending disaster due to illegal tapping of groundwater. Had the officials taken concrete steps to address the woes of the residents, the crisis could have been averted.
Kamatchi’s is the representative voice of the hundreds of residents affected by the ‘man-made’ crisis. “As soon as I wake up around 6.30 am, I trek for nearly four km to a borewell on a farmland for two pots of water. The farm owner is kind, but he allows us only two pots day. We have had no other was source of water in the past six months,” the resident of Mettu Street in Kal Pudur says.
Her tale finds resonance in each of the 1,500-odd households, where spending `300 a month for drinking water has become a necessary luxury.
Water for domestic use too is hard to come by. The village panchayats have been rationing water from the three ponds in and around the villages to delay the inevitable. Rainwater is the sole source of nourishment for these water bodies. The crisis started around 2012, but the villagers were never as hard hit as now, as the scanty showers they received in between were enough to prolong their sustenance. However, the rains were especially miserly this year, leading to even borewells failing to draw water.
“We have no water here. A week ago I did not send my children to school as I could not bathe them,” says K Karthick, a Kal Pudur resident. Two pots is all most of the residents of Erukkathotti and Katharikuppam have to make-do with. “At a time when lakhs of rupees are spent for constructing overhead tanks. Where is the water for these tanks going to come from?” the villagers ask.
When contacted officials of the Walajah Panchayat Union said works to sink more borewells at Kal Pudur were on.
“The groundwater table has gone down at several places. We will check for the feasibility of supplying water through combined water service schemes in future. The issue will be addressed at the earliest,” said officials. Another promise in the summer of crisis.