Parched, Pali villagers forced to consume ‘dirty’ water

VALPOI: Pali village which is located 8 kms from Valpoi town in Sattari Taluka is facing water shortage for the past 8 years. According to villagers, there are 300 houses and the population will be more than 3,000. 

According to the villagers, following acute shortage of drinking water, they are now forced to consume water which is not fit for human consumption.

Subhash Sawant, a villager said, "We get water only once a day. And the supply is abysmally inadequate. We have demanded for more water".

For the past 7 to 8 years, Pali villagers are facing acute water shortage. "If water is supplied to the Dabose village water plant then the "elixir" reaches us in Pali. At times, frequent power cuts play spoilsport. Our water supply depends on many factors. To add to our woes, no water tanker comes to our village. We met the assistant engineer of water supply department four times. We have requested him to fix the water pump connected to our village well. He has assured us time and again but despite that, nothing positive has happened. We have tried and done everything in our capacity but nothing has happened", laments another villager, Nilesh Paryekar.

Another villager, Manohar Paryekar said we get water once a day and that too for an hour. We get water from the bore well and it's not clean. We are getting dirty stuff in which the presence of mud is evident. Moreover, the power supply in our village is erratic which is also affecting the supply. As a result, sometimes we are forced to get water from the village well and it is, at times, not fit for human consumption. Following the intense heat, the well reserves are getting dry; hence we are heading for a big time problem.

"Due to shortage and "bad" quality, we, the women, have to traverse long distances to get clean water," said Vaishali Gaonkar.

Gajanan Gaonkar said, "In our village, there is only one bore well and that was built by water supply department 10 years back. Till now, the department has not cleaned it. Hence, you can imagine the amount of muck that has been accumulated there. We have informed the water supply department, but that has failed to convince them. Nobody is taking our problem seriously.

Assistant engineer Eknath Paste, water supply department, said, "We are installing a new water pipeline in Pali village and work is in progress. It will be over by December. This will help them immensely and the water supply will also be clean." Till then, we will supply water by tankers to Pali village on a regular basis.