KENDRAPARA: Residents of Bharatpur, Dianapatana, Jagannathpur and Mehinidipur villages under Kendrapara Sadar block took to the streets on Sunday demanding immediate supply of potable water.
Accusing the administration of turning a blind eye to the drinking water crisis in the villages, the agitators including women and children blocked Kendrapara-Basapur road at Dianapatana with empty buckets for around three hours.
“We have been demanding water for a long time but to no avail. We had requested the authorities concerned to supply water to our villages through pipelines or tankers. But the officials did not take any steps in this regard,” claimed Parbati Mallick of Dianapatana.
As tube-wells have become defunct, villagers are forced to stand in serpentine queues in the scorching sun to get drinking water from the wells, she added.
Sabita Jena of Bharatpur said they are reeling under severe water crisis for the last three months due to non-operation of two tube-wells in the village. A lone tube-well in Bharatpur is in working condition and women have to wait for hours in queues to collect water from it.
“Politicians come to us for votes but do not care to solve our problems. The administration too is indifferent to our plight. Hence, we were forced to stage the road blockade to press for our demand for drinking water,” she said.
Sources said the state government’s project to supply drinking water to the villages through pipelines is moving at a snail’s pace. The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) authorities started laying pipelines two years back but the project is yet to be completed. Due to the delay in completion of the project, a large number of villages are facing water scarcity this summer.
Contacted, RWSS executive engineer Basant Nayak said work on the drinking water project is underway and it would completed in 2025. “We are supplying water to villages through tankers this summer. The RWSS staff have also been asked to repair the defunct tube-wells,” Nayak added.