Defunct Kendrapara tubewells spew water woes ahead of harsh summer

KENDRAPARA: With summer setting in, several villages in Kendrapara district are staring at acute drinking water crisis owing to defunct tubewells.  To mitigate the issue, a Rs 241 crore mega-drinking water supply project for the coastal pockets of the  district, was launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in 2018 and scheduled to be completed within two years. But the project remains incomplete. 

While day temperature in the district is already hovering around 39 degree Celsius, the situation is likely to worsen in the months of April and May. “In the absence of tubewells, residents of several villages are forced to use contaminated water from ponds, rivers and other sources. Water scarcity will make the summers more cruel,” said Arjun Mandal of Batighar village under Mahakalapada block. 

In the seaside villages, even the tubewells spew water with high salinity level forcing people to trek  to faraway places during summer to get water. Residents of Barakandha, Dasarajpur, Tentulikandha,   Ramanagar, Suniti, Kharinasi, Kajalapatia, Bagapatia, Jamboo and other villages said they are facing severe drinking water crisis and the problem has aggravated with the onset of summer.

“We are forced to consume water collected from a pond as three tubewells in our village are not functioning,” said Nalini Jena of Barakandha.  Hardly few villagers boil water collected from ponds before consumption, though the majority of them do not even filter it,” said Ashok Jena of Barakandha .

Vice president of Kendrapara Citizen Forum, Amarabara Biswal alleged around 1,000 tubewells are not functioning in the district. Senior Congress leader Ganeswar Behera seconded saying drinking water scarcity has worsened in many villages.

“Women and children armed with a pitcher in the left hand and three other vessels atop their heads, moving in small groups on narrow alleys in search of water is a familiar sight in the villages during summer,” he said. 

Executive engineer of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, Basant Kumar Nayak said of 17,038 tubewells in 249 gram panchayats of the district, around 400 are lying defunct. “We will repair all the  defunct tubewells across the  district soon,” he assured.