BELONIA, July 10 (TIWN): Acute drinking water shortage has hit Chittamara Bazar area under BC Nagar RD Block disrupting economic and social activities of the inhabitants. The administration is not taking any initiative over the solution of water crisis, sparking resentment among the people.

The inhabitants of the village have to face acute shortage of water every year. The only Water Tank was implemented here at Chittamara Bazar area under Belonia few years back. Total estimated cost was 1 Lakh rupees. Now the water Tank was remained defunct and the 2 tube wells have been remaining unrepaired for the last three years and the inhabitants now dependent solely on inadequate wells for their water supply.

Owing to inadequate supply of water, people are forced to queue at the wells point for long periods just to have water. Some unhygienic water sources are also used and it is a matter of worry that there could be an outbreak of diseases if the mack 2 tube well is not repaired on time.

Furthermore, the villagers alleged that during election the political parties always assure to solve the problems, but after the election they play no role over the solution of problems, the Ministers and leaders never go to the villages and forget every promises they made. Several villages are already complaining about water shortages not to mention many villages which lack safe drinking water.

Several villages still don’t have any source of protected drinking water. Iron content water is a serious concern. However, it is bacteriological contamination which leads to diarrhea, cholera and hepatitis. There is an urgent need to look for alternative sources of portable water in places where water quality has deteriorated sharply.

The latest statistics shows, as many as 330 habitations of Tripura are still uncovered for purified potable water sources. 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 of water­borne 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 drinking water 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?