Gujarat drought — Look how they risk lives for a few drops of drinking water

In other places, people are getting desperate. Rajpar village in Surendranagar district is a case in point. The village has only one well for drinking water. But its level has fallen so low that people have no choice but to lift water from the bottom which is 200 feet below ground level.

Though the well is wide, the water comes out from a small spring below and in normal times, people generally dip their buckets to draw the water out. But these aren’t normal times and the well has almost dried up and buckets don’t fill up. This has forced villagers to lower a person, a woman in this case as the picture alongside shows, inside the well by tying a cycle tyre or tube around her waist.

On reaching the bottom of the well, the woman stands on the surface and people send down their buckets and vessels tied with rope to the woman. She fills their vessels and the water filled vessels are lifted by the villagers.

People in Rajpar are left to fend for themselves. The village panchayat or the district authorities have failed to put a motor on the well and lift drinking water for this people.

In spite of this hardship, the people of Surendranagar, especially women, who have to walk up to 8 to 10 km to fetch drinking water, still smile and shrug it away. They are used to harsh summers, it’s just that this year it is the most severe.

All the dams in Surendranagar are already dry and the district now depends on bores. In fact, the Dholidhaja and Sukhbhadar dams which supply water to most of the towns and talukas of Surendranagar are already dry.

While Surendranagar city receives water twice a week, talukas like Limdi and Wadhwan get drinking water only once in seven days. For more than 400 villages the lifeline is the water tankers that reach water to them on alternate days.

Gujarat is facing the worst water famine in 100 years. More than 100 of the 143 dams and reservoirs in Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat are dry and others have water for only a fortnight. Most of the towns get water on alternate days or once in three days, that too for 15 to 30 minutes.

For example, Rajkot gets water for 30 minutes on alternate days, Keshod also on alternate days, but only for 20 minutes, while Jamnagar, Jasdan and Amreli get it once in three days for 20 minutes. Certain areas within these towns don’t get even this and there are complaints of political interference in distribution.

In villages, water is being supplied by tankers. Rajpar village gets a water tanker once in two days. Another problem in rural areas is the shortage of fodder. In Kutch and the arid belt along Rajasthan, cattle are dying for want of fodder.