Hemmadi: No drinking water

Kundapur: Hemmadi which is renowned for its jasmines is now facing a lack of drinking water with the water in the river receding during the summers which is now also being filled with salt water. With a population of 4,229, sweet water is available only in the quarter part of Hemmadi while the rest area is made of salt water.  

Most of the residents of Jaladi, Santosh Nagar, Bugarikattu and Hemmadi grow jasmines but are currently shadowed by the lack of water for drinking as well as cultivation.

Affected areas

Jaladi, Batrabettu, Kotebettu, Santosh Nagar, Bugarikadu, Kannada Kudru, Hemmadi, Kattu, Muvattumudi and other places are severely affected by the lack of water. The panchayat has only 1 open well and 1 tube well. Another tube well is located at Sule which is within the limits of Katbeluru, hence useless. However, a few places are getting water from Katbeluru panchayat limits.

Objection

Since the lack of water is a big problem, the panchayat came forward to dig another tube well but only faced dejection. A point with water was identified near Kollur road and the plan was to dig a tube well here but unfortunately it faced objection since the point was within a private property. Now the panchayat administration has come forward to conduct a survey there and put a bore well on government land. When the panchayat planned to create an open well near the lake at Tumbikeri, the locals there expressed fear that the well will suck out the water from their wells and hence the plan never materialized. Thus the situation has reached where water is provided once in two days.

Tube well will be dug

“The work on the tube well was stopped due to objection from the private property and hence, the land where the well needs to be dug will be surveyed and a bore well will be dug on the government land identified here. Since there are very few wa6ter sources, plan has been drawn to provide water through water tankers. The water problem has jus commenced,” informs Manjayya Billava, Panchayat development officer

Tanker water in inevitable

“Since there is objection for the digging of well and tube well from the people, it needs to be done somewhere else. Until then, the water has to be inevitably provided via tankers. Since the area is more prone to salt water, there is a need to dig wells and tube wells here, “said Jyothi Harish Bhandary, GP president

Article by Laxmi Macchina translated into English by Aaron Dmello