Belagavi: Trudging up a hill with pots filled with water or pulling a cart crammed with pots of water to the top of the hill has been the routine of people of Rajankatti, a village near Gokak, but they have little choice than fetch water from a dirty well about 1.5 km downhill for survival.
The village has a good road which helps them reach the foothill without difficulty, but as senior citizens like Bheemappa from Rajankatti remark sarcastically, the government has provided such a road only to ensure that everyone from Rajankatti trek uphill with pots of water every day.
“When I was a child, I remember that my grandfather used to struggle to fetch water from the well, and the same was the case with my father. The situation remains unchanged even today. The government provided a good road but no permanent solution to the water crisis that people face in the village,” he added.
Besides bringing water to drink and for their cattle, everyone has to cart water replenish a big tank located on the hill that supplies water to entire Rajankatti village. If everything is in place with uninterrupted power supply, people get water once in three days from the tank.
In recent days, scores of head of cattle from the village have been brought to a spot close to the well in order to avoid transportation of water for them. According to Balappa Bambargi, a farmer, the condition of cattle has been bad due to scarcity of fodder and water.
“At least three to four times a day, I have to go downhill to fetch water from the well carrying pots on my head and hand. Every household requires more amount of water in summer. Our plight continues to be the same even if we try to save water and use it carefully,'' lamented Bhemawwa Murgod, another villager.
However, the local administration has marked several such villages as drought-hit and has been supplying one or two tankers to each of affected villages everyday. The water supplied through tankers to villages never fulfills people's requirements.
