Water scarcity in 2,265 villages

SAMBALPUR: Come summer it is a struggle for people of interior pockets of the district  to get a pot of drinking water. Villagers, mostly women, have to walk  over a km for drinking water.Reports said of the total 4,414 villages under 1,229 revenue villages spread across 148 gram panchayats in the district, residents of as many as 2,265 villages struggle during summer to get safe drinking water. People of the rest 2,149 villages are lucky enough to get drinking water even in peak summer.Similarly, water-stressed conditions prevail in 208 of 357 villages in Maneswar block, 329 out of 586 villages in Bamra block, 209 of 519 in Kuchinda, 276 of 525 villages in Jamankira, 234 of 579 in Dhankauda, 280 of 446 villages in Rengali and 274 of 462 villages in Jujumura block. Likewise, 244 out of 454 villages in Naktideul block and 221 out of 486 in Rairakhol face water scarcity. A target was set by the RWSS Department to sink 116 tube-wells in villages and another 97 in schools across the district during the 2011-2012 fiscal year. However, only 83 and 79 tube-wells have been installed in villages and schools respectively. As per the reports, no village in the district is devoid of drinking water source, be it tube-well or dug-well.  Despite tall claims, villages struggle due to defunct tube-wells, unhygienic water or depletion of groundwater table resulting in drying up of tube-wells and dug-wells.