Nabarangpur villagers revive defunct well

Koraput: Residents of a remote village in Nabarangpur district have utilised the lockdown to build a water distribution system from scratch, beginning with the revival of a defunct well.
Always faced with acute shortage of water in summer, the residents of Patiasil under Umerkote block have not only revived the well, they have laid pipes with their own money so that some households at least can get running water.
Situated at a distance of 80 km from the Nabarangpur town, Patiasil is home to 75 families. A solar-based water supply system installed by the administration there was the only source of water for the villagers, with two wells of the village lying defunct.
“We unanimously decided to try to solve the water problem of the village,” said Bijay Hantal, a diploma holder in civil engineering and the brains behind the project. Bijay said the villagers were sitting idle in their homes due to the lockdown, and were asked to contribute labour to rejuvenate one of the wells. Once the well was cleaned and its water sources were activated, he decided to seek contribution from the villagers to install a motor and an overhead water tank to store water.
Depending on their capacity, the villagers donated between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000. While a motor was installed at the well to lift water, a 10-feet-stand was prepared by putting stones and a 2,000-litre water tank was installed over it.
“After the water was stored in the tank, we decided to lay pipes for household water connection. We spent around Rs 1 lakh on the work. So far, piped water has been supplied to 26 households. The project took around two weeks to complete,” said Bijay.
The villagers said though it is not possible to provide piped water to every household, the project had decreased their dependence on the lone water standpost of the village.