BALANGIR: With summer setting in and traditional sources of water drying up, people of Balangir district are a harried lot. The district has been recording temperature as high as 42 degree Celsius in the beginning of March.
Residents of Bhalumunda village under Bangomunda block, that has around 600 households, are grappling with acute water scarcity and depending on a lone tube-well that sees long queues of men and women waiting for their turn.
Areas such as Chanadtora, Gandharla, Sindhekela and Jharial too are facing the heat with four water bodies which have dried up and only three functional tubewells failing to meet the needs of the villagers.
Villages like Dharuakhaman, Juba, Khalipathar,Salandi, Tanla, Kanut and Tara of Belpada block are in dire straits as well.
With depletion in groundwater level in many areas like Bangomunda, Lathore, Sindhekela, Saintala, Muribahal, Agalpur, Gudvela, Tusra, Chudapali and Titilagarh, the situation is set to worsen in the coming days. Adding to the woes are drying up of rivers like Lanth, Arjuni, Rahul and Suktel that cater to the needs of people in many places of Patnagarh and Loisingha blocks.
Villages under Turekela block like Chaulsukha, Karuanmunda, Badabanki, Ghunesh, Baddokala, Kandhbahal, Jamutjhula, Rajamara, Dholmandal and Jamki are reeling under acute water scarcity with people in Kantabanji NAC seen queuing up to collect water from the tankers supplied by the PHD.
“Farmers have been the worst-hit, being unable to irrigate their farmlands,” said Jatin Kumar Patra of Belpada village.
“Gram panchayats have been empowered to deal with the water scarcity situation this year. Everything is being monitored by the block and district level officials who have been instructed to provide technical support to villagers for repair of dysfunctional tube-wells on a priority basis,” said executive engineer, RWSS Saroj Kumar Satpathy.