BERHAMPUR: Despite being the largest village of Odisha, Surala under the Chikiti block of Ganjam district continues to reel under water scarcity where the locals have to trek around 3 km every day to collect drinking water.
The village has a population of over 13,000. Locals daily walk all the way to Gobindapur Chowk, 3 km away from their village, just to collect drinking water. Ironically, the village has many open wells and tube wells but the water is salty and used only for washing purposes.
Several initiatives were taken to supply drinking water to the village but none bore fruit. The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) department had installed a mega water supply project at the Badi Chowk area near the village in 2015 but even the water was unfit for drinking purposes. Similarly in 2020, another project was established on the premises of Surala Hospital with a capacity of one lakh litre but that too delivered water with higher salinity.
During the same time, three bore wells were dug at Gobindapur Chowk to supply drinking water to Surala and Kaitha villages but the water supplied through pipelines managed to reach only up to the ODRP colony.
Surala sarpanch Sasmita Kumari Sahu said the matter was taken up with the higher authorities several times in the past but it continues to remain unaddressed. Contacted, RWSS department sources said a proposal has been sent to the district administration for laying pipelines in Surala village.