Drinking water eludes Tribals in Dhenkanal district

Surjit Kumar Dhal, Dhenkanal, July 12: This is not summer. Yet the tribals in Dhenkanal district struggle to arrange potable water for their families.

The situation is no different in other seasons too.

The tribals of Kaju Sahi under  Saptasajya Grampanchyat in Sadar Block depend on a forest stream for drinking water and other needs of their families throughout the year.

 However, water in the forest stream is also not sufficient from these people. The male folk dig pits on the stream bed one kilometer away while the women collect water thrice a day from these pits.

The stream water is also brings with it a host of illnesses for the tribals.

The irony is that the only tube well in the hamlet has gone defunct since several years.

Notwithstanding the tall claims of the State government of providing drinking water to all villages, these villagers’ complaint about the defunct tube well appear to have fallen on deaf years of the local authorities, including District Collector.

In the village Munda and Santal community people have been promised solution to the drinking water problem election after election, but these leaders too forget their promise after the election is over.
Tribals of two adjacent villages –Bana Sahi and Majhi sahi– complain that the water from the tube wells in their villages too is not fit for consumption and they are forced to depend on forest streams for water for cooking, drinking and other purposes.

As many as 300 families travel in the forest to collect drinking water despite likely threat from elephants.

Most of these people are daily wage earners while some work in other farms during the rainy season.

Mukuta Purty of Kaju sahi narrated to this reporter about coming face to face with rogues in the forest area while in search of water or for digging sand.

“Our tube well  is out of order from the day it was installed,” she said.

Another villager Srikant Laguri said his wife and children frequently take ill due to diarrohea consuming the stream water.

“The sad part is the Ambulance does not turn up to carry patients from our village after requests. We travel by auto rickshaw upto Kankadahada two kms away for availing the ambulance service,” informed Pata Laguri.

Not only water, these villages also do not have proper road to the grampanchyat office.

“We suffer from malaria, low haemoglobin, malnutrition and other diseases,” they claim.

Social activist and environmentalist  Pradymna Rath demanded construction of proper road to these villages and health care facilities.

RWSS Executive Engineer Bijayananda Sahoo assured sending a technical team to find the problems and addressing those.