Hide & seek for drops of water is a painful game villagers of Corgao have to play

Team Herald 

CORGAO:  Life in this remote village in Pernem is a game of hide and seek. Late at night families stay close to their dry taps waiting for some signs of the taps coming to life with water. Even if that miracle does happen, it is short-lived, an hour is the maximum “pleasure” they get of “running” water.

‘For the Last 10 to 15 days we are forced to stay awake till late at night or wake up in the middle of the night just to see if the taps have water. The water pressure is such that it is not even enough to fill the vessels. We are buying packaged water for drinking and cooking purposes”, a young resident of the village narrated.

At times even this ‘benefit’ of running water for an hour doesn’t come by. And the wait continues for the government water tanker, which comes by every other day if they are lucky or even longer. At times the wait stretches to 15 days, when they have to literally dip into their savings to buy packaged water, to simply get by. But not everyone has the means to spend on packaged water.

Ask Vishwanath Polji. “We get water every alternate day or after two days for just one or two hours and by any chance, if we fail to store water then we have to wait another two days. The situation gets worse during summer. The government needs to look into the matter and get it resolved because water is a basic need for humans to survive,” he said.

Gurudas Shetye, a resident of Corgao, said, “Earlier we used to get water on alternate days, but the situation is not the same anymore. Now, we get water late at night for just one hour, while most houses have not received a single drop of water for the past several days. The plumber says there is no pressure. But we checked at the Chandel plant, which is supposed to supply water to us, and we were shocked to learn that the supply there is more than optimum. So where is the water being diverted? Is it diverted to the newly inaugurated airport at Mopa or Ayush Hospital?

Even the water tankers don’t reach everywhere

Some places are so remote that water tankers don’t reach them. So these people take empty barrels, walk up to the point where the tankers reach, and leave them there, in the hope that when the tankers do arrive, water will be poured into their barrels.

The people’s ire is against a system that fails them

“We only get oral assurance that water will be supplied on a regular basis, but on the ground, nothing is happening. The department has started releasing water late at night as a result, people have to stay awake till late at night for water,” the locals said.

S Shetye, a resident, said, “Water is a basic need, but the government has failed to fulfill the basic need. We want to question the elected representatives if they cannot fulfill the basic needs of the people then what is the use of electing them.

The authorities concerned should come up with a solution to this issue. At least on alternate days, the water should be released, the residents requested.

We are in 2023, when infrastructure highways and IT are the torchbearers of our progress. But in this village of Corgao, the barometer of progress is very different. It’s just a drop of water.