Push for water projects in Tapan
Balurghat: The new District Magistrate of South Dinajpur, Nikhil Nirmal, who assumed office earlier this month, is trying to solve the problem of acute drinking water crisis, which is prevalent in many areas of entire Tapan block since the past one month.
"The district has been reeling under the crisis of safe drinking water since a very long time. As a part of various development schemes undertaken by state government to mitigate the problem of drinking water scarcity, particularly in drought-prone areas across the state, a pipeline-based water supply project has been taken up by Public Health Engineering department at Tapan in South Dinajpur," Nirmal said.
Nirmal said he visited the affected areas to inspect the progress of ongoing project with the officials of the Public Health Engineering department. It is difficult to collect drinking water from the tube-wells during the onset of summer days as the water-level is very low. A resident Ratan Mondal said: "With soaring temperatures, the demand for drinking water has been rising. The supply of drinking water for Tapan comes from tube-wells, which fails to cater the extra demand in summer when the level of groundwater goes down."
The villagers said they have tube-wells in houses for drinking water but most of them have dried up. Moreover, the demand has gone up manifold due to intolerable heat. Most of the ponds and tanks have dried up in many areas of Tapan. "Villagers bathe more than once during summer season. As we have limited water resources, so we are cutting down on consumption of water. Women need water for household work as well," said local resident Jagan Biswas.
An administrative official informed the Trinamool-led state government has been keen to resolve the problem. New pipelines have been set up through which fresh drinking water is supplied to the affected villages.
"Concrete steps have been taken regarding the matter while drinking water are being supplied through PHE and Mark II deep-well hand pump," said an official.
