Maharashtra | June 3: Imagine being in a place where you have to roam a hilly terrain of around 2-3 kilometres, just to fetch water, the drinking water, and that too dirty! It’s a place where ‘Har Ghar Jal Yojana’ has failed. It’s not Rajasthan, it’s Maharashtra! Yes, this unexpected state always tops the list in water crises and droughts.
2024 is witnessing the intense heatwaves and amidst this scalding heatwave and soaring temperatures across the nation, several places in the nation are facing severe water crises and Maharashtra’s Amravati is one of those districts, forcing the villagers to drink dirty water from polluted sources.
Mariampur, which is a village in the district, is facing a distressful situation. The residents of Mariampur village are forced to collect drinking water by digging pits on the bank of the polluted pond.
The situation has further worsened as they don’t receive any water tankers from the government and neither any of their tap works, gained during the ‘Har Ghar Jal Yojana’.
Villagers have further raised their concerns over the government and MLA’s inaction.
Subhash Sawalkar, a villager, explained that his village has only one pond and they had to wake up around 4 am and go to the pond to collect water for their children, that too from a dirty pond by digging a pit. The situation is so dire that dirty water causes various health problems among them.
Criticising the government’s inaction, an elderly resident of the village said, “Can nobody see what is happening in Mariampur? From the Municipal Committee to the water department, everyone is just sleeping. We have been facing a severe water crisis for many years while other villages have government taps and borewells, but we don’t have that.”
She further added, “We wait for hours to collect dirty water from these pits, which is harmful to our health. There is no tanker supply or any other assistance.”
Amravati falls in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, where the water crisis has been a long issue. Due to harsh climatic conditions, Vidarbha is one of the regions worst hit by water crisis and droughts. It is same region that has a high rate of farmer suicides, which is often attributed to the lack of water in the region.
Due to extreme heatwave conditions, various parts of the nation are suffering from a severe water crisis.
