Gujarat district facing acute water shortage

PATAN - Residents of Gujarat’s Patan district are facing acute water shortage due to the ongoing maintenance work on the Narmada canal.

They now have to fetch drinking water from far-off places or rely on dirty groundwater.

“The big villages with population of 2,500 to 3,000 people should be getting six water tankers each but only two or three tankers are being received to cater to all the villages.

Small villages are receiving only one tanker, which is not enough. We told them (administration) that.

The main problem is that the amount of water pumped from the Umari village (the source of water for the water tankers) is less, therefore it takes about two-and-a-half to three hours to fill one tanker,” said Jeevan Aahir, member of District Panchayat (district council), Patan.

Villagers said that the government failed to execute any contingency plan before closing water supply from River Narmada to the region.

“We are involved in sourcing water from morning itself. Our livestock has perished, we do not have proper drinking water. We depend on the tankers, as there is no other source of water,” said Kasuben.

The water problem in Gujarat has been on for a long time and the closure of the canal has worsened the situation. (ANI)