Plenty of water but not a drop to drink, say Paithan villagers

Aurangabad, Apr 29 (UNI) Drinking water is a dream for several villages situated near Jaikwadi's Nathsagar dam in Paithan taluka of this district.

''We can see plenty of water but drinking water from this major reservoir remains our dream since the time the dam was constructed in the 1970s,'' says Janabai Sonawane who is a member of the gram panchayat at Ganeshnagar, about one km away from the Nathsagar project.

Jaikwadi's Nathsagar project at Paithan, a famed pilgrimage centre, is a major source of drinking water which caters to the needs of 10,000,00 residents of Aurangabad and few lakhs of Nanded.

Besides, the dam is also a major source of irrigation for farmers in the drought-prone Marathwada region.

Despite this fact, villagers, residing in the neighbourhood of the dam, have been deprived of water for years together.

This correspondent visited several villages like Jalgaon, Dhangaon, Wahegaon and Ganeshnagar in Paithan taluka and found the villagers struggling for water. The villagers face the same trauma every summer when the borewells go dry.

''What use is Jaikwadi's water to us? The water goes straight to Aurangabad and Nanded,'' laments Narayan Satpute, a farm labourer residing in Dhangaon.

Relating his woes, 65-year-old farmer Bhujang Asaram Munde, a long-time resident of Jalgaon, says he was forced to send one of his sons to Aurangabad to work on a petty salary as he could not sustain the family on the few acres of non-irrigated land.

Zilla Parishad member Chandrakala Waghmode, a resident of Pimpalwadi, admitted that there was a severe drinking water problem in the neighbourhood of the dam but said efforts were on to set up a permanent water supply system in the villages.

Official sources at the Command Development Authority said the construction of the Nathsagar dam was completed in 1976 and, since then, has proved beneficial not only for Marathwada but also to the neighbouring Western Maharashtra district of Ahmednagar to some extent. The authorities say Ahmednagar receives the benefit of the backwaters of the dam.

The left and right canals of the dam take care of the water requirements of Jalna, Beed, Parbhani and Nanded districts in the Marathwada region.

It is the local gram panchayats which should come forward and set up water supply schemes, the authorities suggested referring to the needs of the fringe villages.

UNI