ROURKELA: With Gopabandhupali slum cluster in the Steel City continuing to face drinking water scarcity during summer, a dozen owners of deep bore wells are making a fast buck by selling water. However, the suffering of the people is likely to be mitigated in a couple of months on completion of the ongoing piped-water distribution project.
Sources said with temperature hovering between 41 and 42 degree Celsius, tube wells are failing to yield adequate clean water thus mounting the woes of the slum dwellers. Gopabandhupali slum cluster, comprising around 36 medium and tiny urban hamlets including Tina Colony, Tingtangbasti, Sunarpatti, Mahavir Chowk Basti, Amarnathbasti, Trinath Colony, Jagannath Colony and Indiranagar continues to face acute drinking water scarcity with groundwater level dropping drastically due to over-exploitation.
Taking advantage of the situation, unscrupulous well-off slum dwellers owning deep bore wells are making quick money by selling water. Depending on depth and capacity of water pump, each bore well owner has 100 to 300 connections and each household is charged from `350 to `400 per month for daily supply of 10-15 minutes. Those buying water are required to arrange flexible plastic pipes. In fact, at least 10 other deep bore well owners are now out of business as their facilities have become defunct due to further drop in ground water. Rita Devi, a 40-year-old woman of Budhimaa Sthan, says she works as a domestic help and her husband works as a coolie, adding that as both of them return in the evening and cannot wait for hours to collect water, they have no option but to buy water.
Former Councillor of the erstwhile Rourkela Municipality Pramila Das said about 10,000 population residing in interior slum pockets and Durgapur foothills are the worst suffers where water tankers could not reach and tube wells go defunct.
Incidentally, as a relief, three deep bore well projects of oil marketing companies with overhead tanks and pipelines are successfully supplying water to 600-700 households, while two other deep bore wells funded from MPLAD of Jual Oram are supplying water through stand-posts.
Public Health and Engineering Organisaiton (PHEO) sources said the ongoing piped-water distribution project connecting Nayabazaar and Gopabandhupali via Timber Colony on completion would resolve water crisis of Gopabandhupali slum cluster and adjacent Timber Colony.