Road blockade in Odisha’s Jajpur to protest potable water disaster

By Express News Service

JAJPUR: Reeling beneath acute shortage of water, villagers of Nuasahi in Danagadi block on Tuesday resorted to highway blockade close to Pankapal Sasan with empty pitchers and buckets demanding a everlasting answer to the disaster.

The agitators alleged that they’ve to attend for hours to fetch ingesting water from the lone tube-well within the village. The tube-well doesn’t discharge enough water because of depletion of the groundwater degree throughout summer time, they mentioned.

Nuasahi has a inhabitants of round 250 and the residents are largely every day wage earners. Basanti Dei, a villager, mentioned the administration had put in the tube-well within the village a few years again. “The entire village depends on the tube-well for potable water. In rainy and winter seasons, we manage to collect enough water from the tube-well as the flow was good. But in summer months, we face drinking water woes. Due to depletion of groundwater level, the flow is slow and we have to wait for hours together near the tube-well to fetch a bucket of water,” she rued.

With harsh summer time months forward, villagers worry the water disaster will worsen within the coming days. The problem has been raised earlier than the block administration of Danagadi previously however to no avail. 

Rabindra, one other villager, mentioned, “We made several rounds of the local block office and apprised the authorities of our problem. We also requested the officials to make an alternate arrangement to meet our potable water needs. However, all our pleas have fallen on deaf ears.”

Later within the day, block officers reached the protest website and held dialogue with the agitators. The highway blockade was lifted after the officers and Pankpal sarpanch Prabodh Kumar Jena assured the villagers of creating association to supply potable water in Nuasahi.