Angul: It may appear strange but true. Residents in Turanga village on the outskirts of the town pay for water in the absence of drinking water facilities in their village. Drinking water is a longstanding problem of the village which is under Banarpal block in Angul district.
Elections after elections have gone but the administration is yet to mitigate the sufferings of the villagers by providing a permanent solution to their drinking water problem in the village. The problem has compunded with two of the three drinking water points getting defunct and a pond going dry in this summer.
Left with no options, the villagers pool money from households and buy tanker water to meet their daily needs. The villagers are also contributing to dig a pond which the administration has left midway.
The villagers collect Rs 1500 daily per tanker of drinking water and Rs 1200 per tanker of water required to meet their other needs. The initiative first started from a ‘sahi’ (area) and has latter spread to three areas. Water is supplied to them in a tanker after they deposit the money in office.
Sources said over 12,000 villagers live in nine wards of the village where drinking water problem continues to haunt villagers all through the year. The village has three drinking water projects. However, two of them are lying defunct after the motor pumps in these projects were damaged due to power problem.
The lone project has failed to meet the rising water demand of the villagers which also remains defunct in most of the times.
Several of the water standposts are lying in breakdown conditions adding to the woes of villagers. People were expecting to tide over the problem by collecting water from the pond but that went dry as the administration left it in the middle of the renovation. The villagers have staged protests in the past and lodged complaints with the district administration but to no avail.
When contacted, Banarpal BDO Sudhanshu Mohanty showed ignorance of the development but assured to take up the matter with the rural water and sanitation department. PNN