Carrying buckets and containers, hundreds of women in Bargarh Municipality and block areas took out a ‘Pani Padayatra’ demanding clean and safe drinking water on Monday. Displaying samples of unclean water, the women demanded that all water bodies in the area should be restored and revived to maintain the groundwater level. Besides, an anicut should be constructed across Jeera river, they said. The town is reeling under acute water scarcity as piped water is yet to reach all the places. The women folk depend on a few functioning tube-wells in the area.
The agitating women said residents of Ward 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Municipality are completely dependent on a pit dug on the bed of Jeera river which flows along Bargarh town. Gulapi Suna of Ward 11 said the water from tube-wells in the area is unfit for human consumption and is reddish in colour. Similarly, residents of Ward 5 and 6 claimed that they are being forced to dig tube-wells for drinking water. The district administration should take immediate steps to provide drinking water to the residents soon. If the demand is not met, they will intensify their stir, the women threatened.
It is noted that, last month in speech, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan asked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to provide safe water and take steps for mitigating the problem of contaminated water faced by residents of Bargarh and adjoining areas.
