Village women queue up till late night to fetch water in Gujarat

Navsari (Gujarat), April 21 (ANI): Faced with acute water shortage due to the onset of summer, local residents the Navsari District of Gujarat are having a very tough time.

Masa and Movasa villages of the district present the women's hardship for water.

The women are the worst affected, as they have to stand in long queues till late night for their turn to fetch water. Besides, these women have to walk two to three kilometres to the village's well to obtain water.

There is only one well in the entire village that is crowded whole day, forcing many women to queue up for water even at midnight.

"We face a lot of water shortage in our village and we have to come here even at night to get water. We have to wait for two hours to get water. Nearly 500 people come here every night to get water from the well," said Archana, a woman.

"I belong to this village and this has been a problem for the past 20 years. It affects not only the other adjacent villages but 700 people (of this village) also. We work so hard the whole day and even at night we have to come and stand in a queue to get water," said Paresh Adharyu, a villager.

A heat wave sweeping India, with temperatures of almost 44 degree Celsius, has caused water shortage in different parts of the country.

The scorching weather, which officials say would continue over northern, northwestern and central India for some days, also may have some impact on the irrigation. By Sanjeev Amin (ANI)