HYDERABAD: No sooner had the summer set in than the water crisis began pinching lakhs of rural people. Though the state government claims to have been taking all measures to ensure that people do not suffer on account of water shortage, its claim does not hold water since the situation at the ground level seems to be different altogether.
People, particularly those in rural areas, have already been facing water scarcity and the situation is likely to become worse till the rain god showers some mercy upon people. Officials in the rural water supply (RWS) department admit that more than half of the villages in the state do not have proper drinking water supply. According to them, people in these villages are suffering due to lack of drinking water sources and proper supply network or facing problems like malfunctioning borewells and delay or interruptions in water supply due to power cuts. Peculiarly, some villages are facing the problem in spite of a good increase in the levels of ground water this year. Drinking water supply will be a priority subject during the Prajapatham programme which will begin next month and officials have been directed to ensure that there are no complaints during the programme in this regard.
The government recently released `66.74 crore for rural water supply— flushing and deepening of borewells, transportation of drinking water and hiring of private sources and de-freezing of the Calamity Relief Fund to the value of work done under Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to the tune of `15.32 crore. The RWS department has conducted a crash programme for 30 days on maintenance of hand pumps and other schemes to equip its staff to meet this year's summer blues effectively.
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