Keonjhar, Orissa:
Orissa is in the grip of a heat wave. For the villagers in the state's tribal-dominated Keonjhar district, it is a trying summer. Their villages are dry and they have to walk miles in search of water.
A search for water under the scorching sun is daily routine for women and children of Keonjhar's Santangiri village. Their village is dry and parched. Women and children dig a dry riverbed in search of water.
The scenes of people walking in long lines with vessels on their heads are common.
A dry pond in the village has dug up for five lakh rupees. The village tubewell is also of no help. The water is too dirty to drink. It is the same story at the nearby Dasgharia village.
",We have only one tubewell for 45 families. Look at the water. It is red and dirty,", said Dasgharia, Keonjhar, elderly person.
Both the ponds have no water. Appeals to the BDO and the sarpanch haven't helped.
And so the villagers make do with this dirty, little pond in the nearby jungle.
",There are nearly a hundred villages in Keonjhar district alone that face such problems. People land in hospitals after drinking dirty water and die because they have no money for treatment or medicine,", said Satyajit Jena, NGO activist, Keonjhar.
The government says it is trying to help.
",We will immediately install another tubewell. Wherever there is a scarcity, we will definitely provide water, either by tankers or by any means,", said BB Harichandan, Minister, RD, Industries and Law.
With summer heat on the rise, the problem of acute shortage of drinking water has affected hundreds of villages and towns across the state and by all accounts, the steps claimed to have been taken by the government is too little and too late.