Woman dies in fight over water at public tap in Andhra Pradesh

VISAKHAPATNAM: As expected by the scientists and environmentalists, the war for water has begun in north Andhra region also. A fight for drinking water has led to the death of a 45-year-old woman at Chinnapalle Street in Sompeta Town of Srikakulam district on Monday morning. The victim was identified as T Padma.
It was the first such incident reported from north Andhra region, where a woman was killed by another woman for a bucket of water. As per the reports two women in their middles age came to a public tap in Chinnapalle Street in the morning and had heated arguments. The locality has only one sources of drinking water which was supplied for one hour. As per the regular norm, the woman made it a habit to form a queue to draw the water from the public tap from 5am every day.
Speaking to TOI, inspector of Sompeta K Srinivasa Rao said that Teppala Sundaramma and Tatapudi Padma had argued over the queue each alleging jumping of queue. Finally, the argument led to the exchange of blows and in a fit of rage Sundaramma hit Padma with her steel pitcher causing head injury. Padma, who fell down on the road, suffered one more head injury and she collapsed on the spot and died while being taken to the hospital.
Based on the complaint from Padma’s relatives, the police rushed to the spot for investigation. A case has been registered against Sundaramma on the charges of murder. The police shifted the body to government hospital for post-mortem and they will arrest the accused soon. Sources said that the incident has exposed the water crisis in the region and if the situation worsens, there will scuffle over precious water in front of the public taps on regular basis, they added.