'Our problems are forgotten after polls': Odisha villagers rue drinking water shortage

With the mercury rising, the drinking water problem in several villages in Sundargarh district has started haunting the residents. 

One such village is Kuliposa village. 

The government has schemes like Buxi Jagabandhu Assured Water Supply to Habitations (BASUDHA) to provide safe drinking water. But it seems the residents of Kuliposa village are not that lucky as they are forced to drink water from a pit. 

At the advent of summer, the village offers a common scene of women and children carrying buckets and going to the pit to collect water, unhygienic at that.  Their problem is multiplied when the pit goes dry in peak summer. 

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The villagers alleged that political leaders visit their village when the election is round the corner. They would promise to end their problem but nothing happens, they complained.

“The political leaders would promise us to address the issue. But after the election, they would come to our village once in a blue moon. In summer season, the women collect water from the same pit where animals quench their thirst,” said a villager. 

“We have a tube well in our village. But its water is no longer fit for consumption. We demand the setting up of a new tube well,” said a female resident.