Narmadapuram: Tribal residents toil hard to fetch water

Surinder Singh Arora

Narmadapuram (Madhya Pradesh): Residents especially women and children of Davida village in Narmadapuram district have to wake up early in the morning, walk kilometres to Betul district and queue up in front of a hand pump for hours to fetch water.

There are five hand-pumps in the village, but all of them have become defunct. The local river has also dried up.

It is not the first time that a village is facing a water crisis in summer. They face the same problem every year.

Davida village of Seoni Malwa tehsil is situated on the border of Narmadapuram and Betul district.

Because of the district boundary, it has been divided into two panchayats- one is Davida that comes under Narmadapuram district and the other is Jhiridoh under Betul district. Nonetheless, there is no proper road connectivity and drinking water arrangement in the village.

The residents of Davida panchayat walk every day to Jhiridoh panchayat to fetch water, as there is a hand pump that works in summer. All villagers have to stand in queue for hours to fetch water.

Sources said that many villagers have migrated to cities because of water shortage in the village. They would return to the village only after the monsoon arrives there.

When contacted, Chief Executive Officer Manoj Sarayam said that he had asked CEO, Seoni Malwa Janpad panchayat to reach the spot and get the tube-well of the village repaired so that drinking water supply could be restored.