Punjab village depends on Haryana for water

The only RO installed in this village is faulty, and the villagers have no option but to purchase drinking water from the nearby village of Desu Malkana in Haryana.

Baldev Singh, chairman of an action committee formed by the villagers, said, “Our ground water is not fit for drinking. We get water from Bhakra canal, which flows from Desu Malkana village, but there is no direct pipeline from the canal to our village. The whole village of 400 houses has to buy the water. A water tanker service brings the water from Bhakra canal and charge Rs 400 for 1,000 litre. We get water twice a month.”

Nazam Singh, another villager, said, “If we travel 5 km to the canal, we can get free water. But how much water can we carry? The water tankers come and fill underground tanks in our houses, where we have installed hand pumps. The Punjab government needs to realise that we are deprived of a basic amenity.”

The village at the tail end of Punjab does not get adequate water for irrigation either, said Banta Singh, panch of the village panchayat.

The village has formed a five-member action committee which wrote to the DC of Bathinda that their pollution and water-related problems should be resolved, or they should be shifted.

Makhan Singh, another villager, said, “More than 50 per cent of us are ready to shift, just like the adjoining village of Kanakwal, because we are fed up with the noise and air pollution from the refinery. Above all, there is no drinking water supply.”

The refinery in Bathinda is closed these days because of repair work, but the villagers are apprehensive that it will soon start functioning again.
They said that Jeet Mohinder Sindhu, who won the recent Assembly bypolls, should remember his promises and return to Phullokhari. After the polls, however, Sindhu has been inaccessible.

Sources from the water works and irrigation department said that as the village is at the tail end of the state, its problems are genuine.

The village gets water from Phullo minor, which is in bad shape, said Dalbir Singh, executive engineer in the irrigation department. He said that a project worth Rs 1 crore has been passed for the village, but the funds are yet to be released.