Tubewells sans water in villages of Balangir

BALANGIR: Water woes remain Balangir’s Achilles’ heel. With summers settling down, the water crisis is getting acute. The situation is alarming in Bariarly village of Turekela block where three of the four tube wells are defunct. The lone tube well, where people queue up in the morning, is unable to cater to the needs of residents forcing villagers to collect water from pits in farmlands. What’s worse, the lone pond in the village is also drying up. 

Since the local pond has muddy water, Santosh Naik said, the villagers have no option but to collect water from a pond in nearby Kushpali village, 3 km away from Bariarly. The problem may aggravate in the coming months and the administration must come up with a solution at the earliest. Similar is the plight of other villages like Gabhara, Ghunesh, Dholmandal, Chausukha and Jharni in the block. Turekela BDO Manoranjan Panigrahi said he has formed a team to deal with the crisis.“The team is visiting villages and will soon submit its report. We will then come up with a plan to address the crisis,” he said, adding the water scarcity problem at Bariarly will be sorted out soon.

Residents of Madhyapur and Dhumabhata villages under Belpada block are reeling under similar crisis. The attitude of the administration in making the lone overhead tank in Madhyapur functional in spite of being constructed 18 years ago has irked villagers. With the tank, the construction agency had also laid down pipes around it to cater to around 3,000 people but failed to connect different points in the village. Similarly, construction of overhead tank at Dhumabhata has been completed since 2015 but awaiting pipe connection thereby making life miserable for the residents.