Shahdol: For many years, the district government has been actively implementing the Jal Ganga Conservation Campaign to recommend and recreate water structures. Yet, individuals living in many villages fight for every litre of water. Unfortunately, the situation is so pathetic that people must wake at 4 to get water. The village has not received the Nal Jal Yojana scheme despite being a government-piped water supply project to rural homes. People are waiting for the monsoon rains, which they expect to bring some changes and ease in this ever-worsening problem of scarce water.
As the following grim scenario indicates, the situation worsens in the Shahdol district, Budhar Janpad, especially the Sabo Gram Panchayat. There are many villages like Bilutkuri, Bakho, Sindhli, and many more, especially the village of Sabo, which is really suffering from water problems. The water table has gone down and surfaced so that hand pumps and wells have been rendered non-commissioned. Despite several attempts, the Nal Jal Yojana has not been successful in improving the situation of these villages.
Some families have been compelled to cover long distances just to get water, the much-needed resource, with many struggles. The village head accepted the water scarcity problems and said that even though they tried the Nal Jal Yojana, it had not been launched. This has also been reported to the district administration, and the people expect a positive response in the near future. However, the district officials have remained rather uncommitted, and most of them have never made definitive statements on the matter.
The situation is a clear testimony that the government’s implication of having a steady water supply through the Nal Jal Yojana is a farce. While the government claims to have achieved saturation of this vital amenity to every village, house and household, the truth otherwise portrays a completely different picture. Common water sources for most of the villages in the district include borehole water and rainwater, which has always proved troublesome, especially during the dry Annual Monsoon season.
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