Beating the heat to fetch water the only option

Vijaysinh Parmar TNN/Rangpar (Wankaner): Around 40 km away from the bustle of Rajkot, hot winds start blowing from early morning. The winds only get more scorching as the day passes. Stepping on this parched land when temperatures are touching 43 degree Celsius, that too with naked feet, is unthinkable. But, Mavu Rabari braves it all. If she doesn’t, life would come to standstill. This is Rangpar, where Mavu and many other women walk three km daily to fetch drinking water. Mavu was married to a person in another village near Rangpar but she has come down to this village so that her 70-year-old mother does not have to walk miles to get water. Her brothers, like many other men in the village, have migrated to nearby farms with animals, due to water scarcity. “We have to spend fours hours daily to get drinking water. Our suffering is getting worse by the day,” she laments. With all lakes, ponds and wells drying up, villagers here have no option but to fetch water throughout the day. “We have dug up virdo (small well) on the outskirts of the village but it is not sufficient to provide water to this village of nearly 1,000 people. So, there is a scramble for even a single drop,” says villager Ratnabhai Ala. Sources say that 70 per cent of the villagers have migrated to nearby farmlands due to water crisis. And, fetching water after so much agony is not the end of their troubles. “We have to consume contaminated water, as there is no potable water source around the village. We do not give our children a bath for at least 10 days. Bathing is a luxury,” says Mani Takmaria. According to village sarpanch Rata Gogia, government will start distributing water through tankers, but it will send only just tanker daily which is not sufficient for the entire village. “We urged them to send three tankers so that quarrels can be avoided when tankers come to village,” he said.