CHITRADURGA: Scarcity of drinking water in the district has hit the common man hard, but the ones suffering perhaps the most are students of a government school at Thammenahalli in Molakalmuru taluk.
The children studying at the Government Higher Primary School here have to walk for nearly 1 km to drink water — that too from a broken pipeline.
Villagers say the problem cropped up since the school authorities failed to get the water storage tank repaired. As a result, hundreds of students are forced to travel to the GP office and drink water that’s brought from a pond through a pipeline. The students also have to clean the plates in which they consume mid-day meals there.
While parents have been voicing their concern over the issue for over a week, their complaints have not been addressed by the GP or the school officials, who are pointing fingers at each other. “This is not a new problem, and it arises every now and then. Children are forced to drink dirty water that is stored in a pond. Even though the issue has been reported regularly to the panchayat, they have not taken any corrective steps,” said Sannappa, president, School Development and Monitoring Committee. The headmaster of the school could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, ZP CEO C Sathyabhama said the issue will be resolved after getting necessary information from GP authorities. She said the school should get the tank repaired and use it. Cluster resource person B V Sharanappa said the headmaster is responsible for the drinking water supply and that the school should get the water tank repaired from the funds available with the SDMC.
“We are ready to provide drinking water to the school, but the school authorities are not ready to store water and use it effectively,” he told TNIE, saying that the headmaster is not taking the initiative of getting the storage tank repaired.