Karnataka: People spend 6 hours to get water in this Gadag village

Residents of this Gadag village have only one thing on their mind --  water. Their day begins with collecting water for daily needs.

GADAG: Residents of this Gadag village have only one thing on their mind --  water. Their day begins with collecting water for daily needs. Most of the women wake up early only to stand in queues near the government water tank as the water crisis has touched a new high at Kundralli village in Lakshmeshwar of Gadag district.

Women fighting for water is a common scene in this village with a population of 2,400 as they are forced to wait for hours together with pots for water. Several government officials in the past visited the village and assured the villagers of supplying water on regular basis during summer. But they never kept their promises.

Villagers are now forced to spend more than six hours near the tanks to collect water.Not long ago, there were live tanks and lakes around the village. As water sources went dry, borewells too stopped supplying water. There is a pure drinking water unit in the village, but that is under repair.Yellavva Lamani, a villager, said that it is the duty of women to bring drinking water everyday as men go for work.

“We have to wait for hours as there is always a long queue. Some people queue up as early as 6 am and by the time we reach, there will be hundreds of people and pots waiting. The queue continues till evening,” she said. “Authorities had promised to supply water through tankers, but nothing has happened so far.”
To condemn the officials’ apathy, villagers are now planning to stage a protest.

Shekappa Surnagi told The New Indian Express that bringing water has become his full-time job for the last one month. “As my wife and mother go for cooking work, I stand in the queue the whole day to collect water. The region has not received good rainfall for the last four years,” he added. An official of the Battur gram panchayat admitted that there is water crisis. “The water unit will be repaired soon,” he said.

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