Rourkela, May 20: With drying up of river Koel, considered the life line of this city, people living in slums near the riverbank have been left to survive on water of pits on the riverbed.
“We have no option but to quench our thirst with the pit water available on the riverbed,” said Kuni Ram of Tumkela slum of Sector-16. The slum, with a population of around 1,500, has only two shallow wells around which people fight with each other to get a bucket of water.
Under such circumstances, many of them make beelines near the pits on the riverbed with containers in their hands. Though they have to wait for more than an hour to get a bucket of water, many have to return empty handed since water drips very slow in the pits, it was learnt.
They have been approaching the local MLA over the acute water scarcity ahead of every summer but it is yet to yield any result, said the residents. Anita Dung Dung, a woman of the slum, said local people’s representatives often hold meetings in the club house of the slum and discuss the issues of the locality but conveniently forget the most important problem of the residents.
“We cannot afford to go for work until we store a few buckets of water at home,” Anita added.
When contacted, Raghunathpali MLA Subrat Tarai said wells get dried up after receding of water level in Koel. Tender processing is in progress to connect the slum with pipe water under Amrut Yojana to address the water woes, Tarai added. PNN
