Water Crisis as Summer Peaks in the largest state of the country Rajasthan, which owns around 10% of the total land area of India unfortunately, has an access over just 1.1 per cent water available in the country. This makes it the most arid state of the country making the residents of the face water crisis every single year as the summers approach.
Women in the rural areas travel on foot to fetch water from neighbouring cities and/or villages which is not enough to meet the daily requirements. 19 out of 33 districts of the state are country are under drought plagued conditions which is making it even more difficult for the residents and cattle to survive.
One such women Shobha who manages to fetch water by walking kilometers, from the Ajmer district of the sate said, “I walk three kilometres to fetch water. Sometimes we do three trips in a day. How many pots can I carry in one trip? My children are almost always thirsty and in this situation when we don’t have enough for ourselves, can we give water to our animals?”
Government on the other hand says that it is making every possible effort to provide access to clean drinking water to every house of the state. Kiran Maheshwari, State’s Public Health minister recently said, “We are over exploiting ground water. We withdraw 100 per cent water but recharge only 22 per cent. The government drills a tube well and it goes dry within three years. We install hand pumps that go dry within 8 months.”
Currently, 13500 villages are facing water crisis in Rajasthan.
