Raiganj: Residents of some villages, including Bangalbari, Gutin, Sashan, Dharoi and Kamalpur under Hemtabad Police Station of North Dinajpur have been facing acute water shortage with the water table having gone down for the last few days. All the tube wells of the villages have become nonfunctional owing to this.
The Mark-2 tube wells also have dried up. The PHE-run water project is not yet complete. Under these circumstances, the residents are carrying drinking water from far away villages.
Hearing of the difficulties of the villagers Satyajit Roy, minister of state education department and MLA Hemtabad directed the authorities of Bangalbari Gram Panchayat to provide drinking water to the villages. Following his order, the Panchayat authorities sent two water tankers with drinking water to the region on Thursday evening. This is to continue every day.
Raseda Bibi, a resident of Bangalbari said: ‘We were going to another village more than a km away to get a bucket of drinking water. We were using water from the ponds for other purposes including washing clothes’.
Manjur Rahaman, a local resident said: “In the absence of drinking water, cooking of mid-day meals has stopped in some schools in our place. The children also have stopped visiting schools. The PHE project has remained suspended for a long time. The matter has been brought to the notice of BDO Hemtabad asking for immediate remedy’.”
Laila Ajman Banu, the Pradhan of Bangalbari Gram Panchayat said: “Considering the difficulties of the residents, we started to supply drinking water to the villages. Every day two tankers in two phases of the day will supply drinking water till the situation improves . The PHE officials have been told to start their water project in the villages soon. We expect the situation to normalise within a week.”