AGARTALA, December 18 (TIWN): Clean, safe drinking water is scarce. Today, most of the rural people in the so called developing Tripura don't have access to it. Yet, we take it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic bottles. Water is the foundation of life. And still today, all across the state, far too many people spend their entire day searching for it. In places hilly areas of the state, time lost gathering water and suffering from water-borne diseases is limiting people's true potential.

The problem of water scarcity is a growing one in the rural Tripura, and the areas under the Dhalai District like Govindabari, Thrcherra, the areas under the Longthorai Valley, Jampuijala, Takarjala, Manikpur, Narayansingh Ruazapara and other tribal dominated areas are lacking pure and safe drinking water.

As more people put ever increasing demands on limited supplies, the cost and effort to build or even maintain access to water will increase. And water's importance to political and social stability will only grow with the crisis. Speaking to the reporters here at the secretariat on Thursday DWS (Drinking, Water and Sanitation) Minister Ratan Bhowmik himself made it clear that the safe drinking water is still unreached to the rural areas especially in the South, Dhalai district, where the villagers needs to spend their time searching for a clear, safe drinking water moving far from their villages.

The latest statistics shows, as many as 330 habitations of Tripura are still uncovered for purified potable water sources. Obviously, these locations are always prone to the spread ofwater-borne of diseases and ever year at least two outbreaks of seasonal gastro infections – pre monsoon and post monsoon are reported over the decades. Although the administration has taken steps to contain the intensity of the diseases by introducing several methods in vulnerable location and supply of water by tankers; yet safe and good health care facilities are still absent in more than 1276 distant locations of Tripura.

Women and girls of the mentioned districts and also other rural parts of the state Tripura bear the burden of walking miles at a time to gather water from streams and ponds - full ofwater-borne disease that is making them and their families sick. It is to be mentioned here that it is not the money that prevents state government focusing on supply of drinkingwater but lack of interest and infrastructure.

It is of course not a new story that tells about the scarcity of pure drinking water in the hilly areas as well as other rural parts of the state. And also it is nothing new for the state govt. who always being back tracked from supplying drinking water to the rural Tripura and often says the state is developing fast, in terms of education, and health. Is this called the “Golden Era” that lacks the basic needs for the villagers of the state? Can Chief Minister Manik Sarkar take a pain to take stock of the worst situation of the villagers, when his own minister had already admitted to the scarcity of pure drinking water in some rural parts of the state ?