Virudhunagar
Over a score of villagers from Ajampatti under Thulakkapatti panchayat near here laid a siege to the Collectorate with empty pots highlighting the erratic water supply to their village for the last six months.
Men and women complained that the panchayat officials were not responding positively whenever piped water supply given through around 20 public taps got suspended due to frequent damages to underground pipeline.
“The stock reply from the panchayat clerk is that he could only pass on the complaint to the block development officer and pleads that he can do very little in setting things right,” said a local youth, M. Moorthy, 32.
The villagers complained that groundwater that is drawn from Thulukkapatti is pumped some three km to their village. “Our village has got an overhead tank that is in a dilapidated condition. Water that used to be supplied twice a week is not happening as often the pipeline gets damaged,” he added.
Stating that groundwater is very scarce in their village and a few affluent people who had sunk borewells were disappointed with the highly saline water, he said that some 120 households were dependent on the piped water supply for all their daily usage, other than cooking and drinking.
“We buy purified water from private operators who charge as much as ₹10 a pot. But, we need piped water for all other usages,” Mr. Moorthy said.
The people are now forced to tread three km to fetch water from Thulukkapatti or to Kovilpulikuththi that is one km. “As people in Kovilpulikuththi themselves are facing water shortage, they often complain as and when we go there to get water,” he added.
A new borewell sunk for railway work along Virudhunagar-Tirunelveli section has also led to depletion of water source in Thulukkapatti, the villager complained.
While some officials, who visited the village upon instruction from Collector, A. Sivagnanam, promised to set right the problem immediately, Mr. Moorthy said that no work took place till late in the evening.