BELAGAVI: A village in Belagavi’s Khanapur taluk has come up with a drastic solution to tackle its water crisis. Villagers of drought-hit Maan are getting only two pots of drinking water against one ration card, every alternate day, from the village well.
The village of about 800 denizens was forced to come up with this solution to ensure that their lone well didn’t go dry.
Maan is about 50 km from Belagavi. The village has been facing acute water scarcity for the past few months. Villagers say the taluk administration has not supplied water through tankers despite several reminders.
The lone well is not sufficient to meet the drinking water needs of the entire village. It takes one day for the well to recharge itself.
That’s when village elders decided to hold a meeting recently and come up with the ration card proposal. While the number of members in a family may vary for each ration card holder, village leaders say there is nothing much they can do about that.
At least 95 per cent of the population in Maan falls below the poverty line.
Villagers also trek a distance of 4km inside the deep forests to get water that is contaminated for other purposes.
Responding to villagers’ demands, the taluk administration recently set up an electricity connection at that spot to draw water and even laid a pipeline. But it didn’t install a water pump. Another water source exists, but it is 6km away.
With temperatures soaring each day and summer set to peak next month, the worries of the villagers have only increased. Their only option is to migrate. Only they don’t know where to.