Khanpur, a desert in an oasis

Vijaysinh Parmar TNN Khanpur (Anand district): It is common to find villages in the barren regions of Surendranagar and Banaskantha where young men can’t find brides. No one wants to marry their daughters to these villagers where they would have to labour for hours to get drinking water. This phenomenon is unheard of in Anand, a lush green water-surplus region of rich farmers. And yet Vallabhbhai Patel of Khanpur, a village 40 km from Anand, can’t get his eldest son married. “He has been engaged twice, but the moment the bride’s family hears of our drinking water scarcity, they break off the engagement,” he says. “People can’t believe that Anand has a water scarce village.” In the last five years, not one of the 50-odd bachelors has married in this village of 3,000 people. Patel has to ride a bicycle for two km to fetch drinking water. Khanpur’s water crisis is difficult to swallow as it is regularly marooned by floods during monsoons. Surrounded by a ring of villages with prosperous farmers, it is a mini-desert in a large oasis. “We are finding it difficult to get our sons married as word of water scarcity spreads in other villages,” says Shantaben Patel, another villager. Because Khanpur is located on a higher plane — its topography is 22 feet higher than the rest of the villages in the region — villagers say it is difficult to pump water into their pipelines from the water supply scheme just two km away. The scheme supplies water to 44 villages in the area. To make matters worse,Khanpur’s ground water is brackish. “At least 60 per cent of our villagers suffer from kidney stones,”says Pramod Patel. Both he and his three brothers suffer from the ailment. “We have no option but to drink this water.” Says DG Bhandari, deputy executive engineer of the local group water supply scheme, “Although we don’t provide water to Khanpur, we are implementing a new scheme which should solve their problem.”