Navi Mumbai: Barely 15km away from Belapur, in the tribal hamlets in Chirner, Raigad district, poor adivasi residents are facing a desperate water situation.
They have to wait patiently for close to 30 hours at a stretch to fill water in three utensils per household from a sole hand-pump.
“We are facing an acute water shortage here, especially in Khairachiwadi and Bhuryachiwadi in Chirner. Our family members practically sleep in night-long queues in front of a hand-pump connected to a bore well because there is no regular water supply from the main pipeline,” said D Bhiku, one of the tribals.
The worst-affected are people from the Katakari tribal community who have been living here for years.
“Uran’s Ransai dam is just 1.5km away, but we have to suffer as the local district officials are not even providing us with tanker water supply. Monsoon is still at least two months away. So, we are helpless and don’t know what to do in such a scenario,” added another tribal.
Kiran Panbude, Raigad district deputy collector, told TOI, “Rural water supply is handled by the zilla parishad,but I will see what can be done about this situation at Chirner.”
Arvind Toro, Raigad zilla parishad executive engineer, said that they had earlier reviewed all the incomplete water works schemes in the district. So, he will have to refer to the Chirner region to inquire into the problem.
Over 70 tribal families are facing a terrible time in the ongoing hot summer, and are hoping that the state government will provide them with adequate water supply as soon as possible.
The tribals added that though there were five bore wells in the region, only one has the requisite water levels at Khairachiwadi.
As a result, they had no other option but to wait in long queues throughout the night to fill their pots.