The people in Madhya Pradesh are facing a severe water crisis which has exposed the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government’s claims of development. According to a report in Dainik Bhaskar, residents of 26 villages in Akashkot area of Umaria district are reeling under an unprecedented water shortage. All the tube wells that the government had claimed to have dug have dried up. There are over 300 handpumps but none spew out water.
As a result, the area is witnessing violence over water. According to a report published in HT, in the third clash over water this month, three people were injured as two groups fought with each other last Tuesday over who will take water first in Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria district, about 500 km east of the state capital.
An acute water scarcity has forced the administration to introduce rationing in 167 cities with 40 per cent of the state’s reservoirs going dry. Officials say water in at least 50 cities is being supplied once in three days, while in 117 cities, it is being supplied once in two days.
The HT report quotes MP Water Resources Department as saying that 40 per cent of the reservoirs have almost dried up and the water in the Narmada is less than half of the normal quantity for this period of the year, thereby impacting the overall drinking water supply.
In the absence of government assistance, over 100 villagers have begun to dig a well through rocky grounds. According to the Bhaskar report, men and women have been working for 16 days all throughout the day with Mercury hovering around 44 degrees Celsius.
The region witnesses a spell of drought every year during extreme summer. The tube wells and handpumps, the government installs for the people conk out just when people need them the most. Most of these tube wells and handpumps are not half as deep as they are shown in government documents.