Keonjhar: Tribal villagers of Khuntadihi Mundasahi hamlet in remote Luhakala village under Talakadakala panchayat of Banspal block in Keonjhar district have adopted an innovative technique to address the water crisis and have been successful in ending their woes.
The hamlet located at a distance of seven kilometres away from the panchayat headquarters is home to 13 Munda tribal families. They earn their livelihood mainly by selling forest produce and working as daily wagers.
Till they solved the crisis in their own way, their only source of water was the ‘Khuntadihi’ steam originating from Debtaghara hills located a kilometre away from the village.
However, while doing so, they faced a number of problems. The first being that water from the stream was used by both human beings and animals. With animals depending on the same stream, the water frequently got polluted and turned muddy and dirty. Also during summer, the stream dried up leading to acute shortage of water. Polluted water collected from the stream, was causing health issues for the villagers.
The residents of Khuntadihi Mundasahi hamlet appealed to the block administration to provide them with drinking water facilities but in vain. When they failed to get any relief from the local administration despite multiple appeals, they decided to solve the problem on their own.
Community leaders Sana Munda, Manga Munda and Birsa Munda were the leaders in the innovative method to procure water and they launched the project in 2021. The three shared their idea with other residents of the hamlet and bought a 500- metre long pipe. All the families in the hamlet contributed money to buy the pipe.
The villagers then constructed a boat-shaped wooden plank and also acquired a large dry bottle gourd. They took these to the origin of the stream and diverted the water from there through the plank and the bottle gourd and connected those to the pipe. Now there is no water shortage in the village. They use the water for drinking and other domestic purposes, residents pointed out.
Social activist Duskar Barik who works for the upliftment of the tribals expressed surprise over the innovative idea and praised the villagers. He also criticised officials of the district administration here for their failure to solve the problems of the tribals.
PNN
