Is it water scarcity or govt apathy as Chhattisgarh villagers drink water from drain?

Since water is scarce, villagers in Chhattisgarh are drinking water from a drain.

Raipur, May 22: Poor in India lead miserable lives. It is the poor and underprivileged who have to bear the brunt of any catastrophe first. The poor are the shields for the rich to tide over any tragedy. As the summer season is at its peak and temperatures are skyrocketing, water has become scarce.

Again the poor and marginalised are suffering the most due to water paucity across the country. Women and girls walking several kilometers to bring home water in pots and buckets is a common site in many cities, towns and villages of India.

However, water story of a village in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada will definitely leave you appalled. Since water is scarce, villagers are drinking water from a drain.

A village in Dantewada is reeling under water scarcity. Locals are compelled to dig water from an area near a drain, reported ANI.

Equally shocking is the reaction of the collector who merely said he would look into the matter as if it is a small issue. "We will look into the matter, if there is a shortage of hand pumps then we will install them," Saurabh Kumar, collector, told ANI.

Pictures taken by photographers of ANI showed how little girls and women scooped the water out of the bottom of the drain. If these images also don't move our politicians and authorities, we don't know what would.

"Nearly 63 million people in India do not have access to safe drinking water, and increased pollution of water-bodies and poor storage infrastructure over the years, has created a water deficit which may become unmanageable in the future. A WaterAid report in 2016 ranked India among the worst countries in the world for the number of people without safe water," stated a report by dailyo.