Jharkhand: Water from the tap hasn’t reached here yet! Villagers forced to drink water by digging soil by hand in 500 years old village
In 500 years old village, even today people are forced to drink water by digging soil. The problem of water can also be gauged from the fact that to fulfill their needs, the people of the village wake up not only during the day but also at night to collect water. Here we are talking about Deoghara township under Dharmabandh of Katras area. There is a lot of water scarcity in this village. Not only during the day, but also at night, women, men and children work to carry water from chuan (a kind of small pit filled with water). This is the case in every season. For drinking water, the women, men and children of the township make their way through the jungles and bushes three kilometers away, cross the high and low trails and reach a flowing stream. Then they take out drinking water one by one from the two chuan made here.
Neither the administration nor the Panchayat level has taken any initiative to solve this problem of the villagers. Kajri, Bela, Devanti and Rajendra Besra of Deoghara township told below that this village is about 500 years old. Ever since the village was established, the people of this village have been drawing water from here. The total population of the village is about two and a half thousand. The total number of voters in the village is around 1800. Half of the population is dependent on this source.
When the local media team reached Deoghara township, people were shown the place from where they fulfill their needs by extracting water every day. Slippery is very high here due to the clay soil. The women of the village work very hard to draw water.
The depth of Chuan is about four feet and the width is one to one and a half feet. The villagers told that the water level here is very high. After digging a few feet of chuan, the water itself starts seeping. There is no shortage of water, but there is no proper arrangement and means to take water.
Women told that capable people have made arrangements for drinking water in their homes. There is no one for the poor like us. Kajri Devi and other women told that there is a lot of problem in the rainy season. In case of hailstorm, there is no place to hide on the way to fill the water.
Well made eight feet high, how to extract water
15 years ago, the local public representative got an eight feet high and equally wide well constructed with his own funds. Now it is not known how deep the eight feet high well is, but if someone wants to fill water, it is difficult to draw water from the eight feet high well. First one has to stand on the well by putting a ladder in the wall of the well. After this, hardly any water will come out. Another well dug next to it has taken the form of a swamp. The villagers told that the public representative has got deep boring done in the village, but its water is not good.
Risk of falling in the rain
Lakshmi Kumari, who has passed the 10th standard examination, told that due to bad roads, sometimes they slip and fall. A pot full of water placed on the head also falls. Due to this the utensils also get crushed. Dharmabandh Panchayat’s head son Anup Ravani said that the problem has come to the notice. The headman’s fund is very less. It is difficult to run the work with that much fund. He said that in the Zilla Parishad meeting, a demand will be made to construct a road from Basti to Chuan and to transport this water through pipeline to the township by deep boring next to Chuan.
