Mangaluru: A 60-year-old woman’s determination seems to have helped a whole village to quench its thirst.
Laxmi Poojarthi along with four other women, dug up a 52-foot deep well in the parched village of Kundapur taluk in Udupi recently.
She took up the initiative in Viveknagar Colony of Amparu gram panchayat under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. At least 10 households now depend on the well.
Amparu village has highly undulating terrain and water is supplied to the area through tankers during the summer. During other seasons, the nearest source of potable water is atleast two to three km away. Hand pumps, too, do not provide good drinking water.
It took almost three and a half months for the women to dig the well which is six-feet in width.
The gram panchayat has a pro vision of providing wells under the NREGA Act and of the wages paid, Rs 82,000 was used for installing rings inside the well. But, since the cost of installing the rings was Rs 1.18 lakh, Laxmi used her savings of Rs 40,000, including part of wages from the NREGA work to meet the cost.
Kiran Hegde, Amparu GP vice-president,is all praise for the women. “Laxmi is a brave woman and a role model for all. The woman gave her entire savings for a public cause. She has done something extraordinary,” he said and added that the GP had dug five wells and sunk 40 borewells in the area for providing water to about 188 families.
“There’s none that I can call my family and it does not bother me. I get my pension and if this small effort helps others, it’s worthwhile,” Laxmi, who has been abandoned by her relatives after the death of her parents, said.
(Source: The Times of India)