ADILABAD: After launch of the Mission Bhagiratha, a dream project of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to provide drinking water to all households in the State on August 6, 2016, vector-borne and water-borne diseases have come down considerably in Kumurambheem-Asifabad district. Prior to this, most of the villages neither had borewells nor agricultural wells to depend upon for drinking water. Their main sources of drinking water were nearby lakes, rivers and waterholes. Even wild animals would quench their thirst in waterholes. Fetching water was a dreary and arduous task for women and girls as they had to walk miles to meet their daily needs.
Before 2021, due to consumption of contaminated water hundreds of tribals used to suffer from vector-borne and water-borne diseases like typhoid, malaria, ADD (acute diarrhoeal disease) and others.
As a result, health facilities used to be crowded with both outpatients and inpatients. For instance, 8,071 ADD cases were recorded in this tribal-dominated district in 2015; 8,279 in 2016; 8,315 in 2017; 7,923 in 2018; 7,821 in 2019; 7,931 in 2020; and 4,116 cases in 2021 before dropping to 1127 in 2022.
Similarly, typhoid cases have come down gradually since 2015 when as many 6,632 cases were reported. By December this year, they have come down to 1,845 cases. Another disease endemic to the district was malaria. In 2015, 6196 malaria cases were registered and they have come down to 77 till now this year. Dengue cases too have seen a drastic drop after the launch of Mission Bhagiratha by the government of Telangana.
It was first launched in Komatibanda village in the Gajwel constituency of Medak district and it became fully functional from 2021 in the erstwhile Adilabad district. Each household gets 100 litres per day of quality drinking water, reducing the burden of storage of water.
The Mission Bhagiratha has also put an end to daily drudgery of women and girls who used walk miles to fetch water in the hilly terrain. Now, they are able to focus more on productive activities.Speaking to TNIE, Mission Bhagiratha Executive Engineer K Venkatapathi said that 157 MLD of water is being supplied to 27 mandals through 1.19 lakh tap connections in the district. This supply network also covers Bellampelli constituency in Mancherial district.
District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) T Prabhakar Reddy said that the vector-borne cases completely decreased after the launch of Mission Bhagiratha. Kova Daulath Rao, president of erstwhile Adilabad district Adivasi Sena, too, concurred with the officials that the Mission Bhagiratha has proven to be a blessing for tribals in the district.
100 lirtres
Of potable water is being supplied to each household in the district. It does away with the need to store water