CHERUTHURUTHY: With the drying up of Bharathapuzha and failure of summer rains in Thrissur district, villagers in Deshamangalam, Varavoor and Panjal grama panchayats are put to severe scarcity of drinking water. While almost all the drinking water wells in households in the area have become dry, the drinking water supply network of panchayats and the Kerala Water Authority were not functioning properly due to nonavailability of water in Bharathapuzha.
All the drinking water supply projects catering to the needs of these panchayats solely depended on the water drawn from the river.
The temporary bund constructed near the Cheruthuruthy bridge across the river to hold water during the summer season was of no help as the bund was constructed by stacking sand filled bags. Because of the seepage of water through the sand filled bags, the bund could not hold water in the river. As a last resort many, who could afford, are now trying their luck by digging tubewells in their residential compounds.
The area being prone to earth tremors, there are also apprehensions among the people on the possibility of more and more tubewells causing earth-tremors.