Contaminated water is also a luxury in this village

‘Aaya to learn, aaya to serve’ is written on the wall of Bikapanga Upper Primary School in Tumudibandha block of Kandhamal district. Only 32 children study here from classes 1 to 8, yet some are forced to do their ‘seva’ as facilities are hard to come by. The school does not have access to safe drinking water, and boys and girls have to fetch water from the nearest canal if they want to use the toilet. Arjun Majhi, a parent of a student, said, “We have not seen any improvement in the facilities though the school was established in 1977. Even a tube well is not present.” Water scarcity is a common thing in the tribal villages of Kandhamal. To ease the suffering, the Odisha government promised to provide tap water connections to all schools and anganwadi centers by 2022 under the centrally sponsored Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). However, that promise has yet to be fulfilled.

Manoj Kumar Samantaray, a Bhubaneswar-based researcher on water, sanitation and hygiene, was taken aback by the JJM’s slow pace. “Providing safe drinking water to tribal villages through JJM is a complex task. There are many challenges along the way, including geographical barriers, lack of infrastructure, limited awareness, cultural barriers and lack of funds. Addressing the plan by each community can make it a success,” he said. When asked about the lack of infrastructure, Kandhamal District Education Officer Pramod Kumar Sadangi told 101reporters that all efforts are being made to ensure water supply to the schools. “Immediate action will be taken to repair and rebuild water infrastructure, wherever required,” he said. Schools have been closed since April 21 to ensure the safety and health of students, as the day temperature touched 38- has risen to 41°C.

Meanwhile, Arjun, who is also the chairman of the Bikapanga School Management Committee, said the problem is not limited to the availability of water. “Students from classes 1 to 8 are kept in one place as only three classrooms exist in the school. Two of them are in a dilapidated condition. No action has been taken despite several times approaching the authorities.”

complaint bucket

Sumitra Manjhi (36) has been walking 2.5 km to fetch water in such a hot summer that it is difficult to count. Sumitra, a resident of Sapri in Tumudibandha block, said, “Water is a privilege. We women have to walk long distances even for a bucket of water.”

The hilly and wooded Sapari tribal hamlet is home to 165 people in 38 houses, but it never had access to safe drinking water. Two nearby tube wells are lying defunct. “The tube wells stopped working in 2019. Our repeated requests to get them fixed have been ignored. The authorities should prioritize the matter as access to safe drinking water is a fundamental right,” said Kurtamgarh gram panchayat Sarpanch Swarnalata Mallick said, under which Sapri comes. ,

However, Kedendi Manjhi, a ward member of Sapari, blamed the sarpanch. “There is no response to our requests to repair defunct tube wells. What should we do?” he asks. In response, although Mallick said that the problem would be resolved at the earliest, he did not give any details about the progress of the repair work.

Digmandla Manjhi of Gunsupa said, “Every summer we hope against hope that this struggle will not happen again. We have to fight for every drop of water.” Most of the villagers in the particularly vulnerable tribal group of Kutia Kondh are forced to walk up to a kilometer to fetch water from a puddle.

Dibakar Sabar, an activist with the Jan Jagran Manch, said, “Villagers boil contaminated water, but it always poses a health risk.”

Tired of the annual struggle, hundreds of women and adolescent girls gathered for a rally at Tumudibandha and Kotagarh block headquarters on March 22 demanding safe drinking water and better anganwadi facilities.

Meanwhile, Kandhamal rural water supply and sanitation executive engineer Ajit Kumar Behera told 101 reporters that sarpanches have been asked to identify places where handpumps need repair or new tube wells should be dug. He explained, “This will help us allocate resources effectively and efficiently as two mega water projects serving more than 100 villages each are under consideration. We are currently finalizing tenders for single-village projects. and work on them will start soon.”

decoding data

A recent study by Atmashakti Trust and its partners on the status of safe drinking water in 9,856 villages in 15 districts of Odisha paints a scary picture. The survey, which covered 9,37,152 households and 32,960 tube wells, found that four out of every 10 households do not have access to safe drinking water. Four out of every 10 tube wells and nearly half the handpumps surveyed were defunct. In percentage terms, 40.55 per cent households did not have access to safe drinking water, while 40.93 per cent had substandard tube wells and 48.6 per cent hand pumps.

According to government data, only 45% of rural households in Odisha have access to piped water. Rayagada-based Debendra Suna, another Jan Jagran Manch activist, said, “The government claims sufficiency of water, while the villagers’ struggle continues.”

In Raigarh’s Baldiya village, more than 80 households subsist on a tube well and a solar handpump. Even after digging the tube well to a depth of 60 to 80 feet, it cannot lift water from the stony soil. During the rains, we fall ill after drinking this dirty water,” said Satya Praska (28), a ward member of Baldiya.

The situation is worse in Nanduruguda, where villagers depend on chuan (surface water source like a puddle) to meet their water needs. “It is the only water source at our disposal. When one chuan dries up, we dig another one along a canal or river. When all sources dry up in summer, we have to go to neighboring villages,” says Jayant Urlaka (32) says. In summer, they store water in big earthen pots, but it lasts only for 10 to 15 days.

Laxmidhar Singh, a member of the Indigenous People’s Forum, warned: “Unless the government acts swiftly, the extreme heat will only worsen the crisis in water-scarce villages.”

helpline without help

Hadibandhu Behera, former chief engineer of RWSS, said a dedicated helpline number 1916 is run as a part of the Baxi Jagabandhu Assured Water Supply to Habitation (Basudha) scheme. “Mobile vans are also in place to repair damaged water infrastructure.”

However, people are largely unaware of this. Digmandal Manjhi, a resident of Daredi in Kandhamal, said, “I am hearing about this helpline for the first time. If the government had informed us, we would have definitely used the facility.” At the same time, Shantanu Patra, who works with Jeevika Suraksha Manch, reminded that many remote tribal villages do not have mobile network coverage.

The state government is primarily focusing on the Basudha scheme, and has constructed new water supply systems, repaired existing ones, and set up water treatment plants in different parts of the state.

Under JJM, the government aims to provide tap water connection to every rural household by 2024. For this, the Department of Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water has proposed a budget allocation of Rs 5,750 crore under JJM, Rs 4,002 crore under Basudha Yojana. and Rs 1,000 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund for the coming financial year.

(Naba Kishor Pujari is a Bhubaneswar-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters)