Facing severe water crisis people in UP village digging holes to get water

There seems to be no end to the drinking water crisis in Room Village of Shankargarh. The daily wage labourers residing in the area are digging shallow wells in their premises for groundwater rejuvenation. Shankargarh town is located 40 kilometres away from Pragraj. On May 30, Allahabad became the hottest city across the country after the maximum temperature touched 48.6-degree Celsius.

The locals of Room village have expressed their frustration over the prolonged water crisis which has gripped the region from the last seven decades. To quench their thirst, villagers are forced to walk miles every day to fetch water from a well and also dig holes near their houses to get access to water.

"There is a severe water crisis, people here dig pits to get access to water. The water is unclean and people tend to fall ill often. People who do not even have food to eat cannot even afford treatment," said a local while speaking to ANI. "We just have one well in Shankargarh which is 3 kilometres away. Even that well does not have clean drinking water but only muddy water. Labourers are falling ill and have no money for the treatment," said Dharam Raj Pal, a villager.

A social activist said that several times villagers notified the local administration about the same, only for their pleas to fall on deaf ears. "From the last 70 years, the issue of the water crisis is prevailing in the region. No officials made efforts to resolve the issue here. The government must do something now. They should look into the matter," said Ajay Sharma, a social activist. Besides Shankargarh, with mercury on the rise across the nation, residents of Mehboob Nagar are also facing hardships due to water shortage in the area. The crisis has also returned to haunt the people of Latur. What further worsens the situation here is the scanty rain the district receives every year. People's only source of water is a tanker which reaches them, but not so frequently. 

(With inputs from agencies.)