Famine, drought threaten MP

NK SINGH

Bhopal: The shadow of famine and death looms large over vast areas of Madhya Pradesh.

Though there are no reports of  starvation deaths yet, a massive exodus of hungry farm workers and impoverished peasants has started from Chhattisgarh and the tribal districts of Dhar and Jhabua in West Madhya Pradesh. Reports, official as well as unofficial, reaching the state capital from districts paint a grim picture of desolution and destitution in the countryside.

An erratic monsoon last year and almost total failure of winter rain have caused an unprecedented water scarcity in all the 45 districts of the state. Even more alarming is the apprehension in some circles that the drinking water scarcity may lead to an outbreak of epidemics.

Every seventh village in the state suffers from an acute water crisis. Over 10,000 villages have been officially declared 'problem villages'. Residents of these villages have to walk to 10 km to get a pitcher of drinking water.

The seriousness of the crisis can be gauged from an official memorandum on the situation prepared by the state Government. Describing the problem in 29 districts as "unprecedented," the memorandum warns that "if adequate steps to provide drinking water facilities are not taken immediately, it can be said without exaggeration that a large section of the population will have no water to drink at all."

While a thirsty Sagar is being supplied drinking water on alternative days, at Ujjain vehicles are plying on the dry bed of Kshipra river, the town's main source of water supply. A record number of 145 towns are suffering from severe water scarcity.

The Madhya Pradesh Government has sent an SOS to the UNICEF and Central Government for money and equipment to take up work on drinking water supply on a war footing. Unless this is done, a large number of villages will have to be evacuated.

Indeed, if the present pace of relief operations continues, it will be well beyond the govenment's capacity to provide succor to the needy in time. With the equipment the state Government possesses at the moment, it can make drinking water arrangements for only 100 villages a day. At this rate, it will take them over three months to provide drinking water to all the problem villages.

The public health engineering department, which looks after drinking water arrangements in this state, had already identified 2,000 villages where neither money nor equipment can help. There is no sub-soil water to sink tubewells in these villages.

Bhopal: The life-giving liquid will have to be transported by tankers to keep their occupants alive. As there are no motorable roads in many of these problem villages, water will have to be transported by bullock carts in some cases. Bullock carts carrying water drums are already plying in several villages of Bhind district.

Most of the rivers of the state are rain-fed. About 20 districts in the western region normally face water problems and when the rains fail, the situation becomes quite alarming. The remaining 25 districts in the state, particularly those in the central region, are also not immune to the water scarcity. Save for Chattisgarh, rainfall was erratic and unevenly distributed throughout the state during the last monsoon, adversely affecting kharif crops in various parts of the state. The winter rains also failed, leading to a reduction in the rabi yield and bringing the water level down in most wells and reservoirs. 

The situation is worsening with each passing day. The state Government had earlier estimated that 29 districts would need assistance for drinking water supply. Its latest assessment is that all the districts will need help. Earlier, it was estimated that 7000 villages and 27 towns were 'problem' area. The numbers has now gone up to 10,000 and 145 respectively.

The government had sunk tubewells in 1600 villages in the first three months of this year. In addition, 130 tubewells were drilled in Sagar town and a 10 km long pipeline was laid for pumping water from an irrigation reservoir to the city of Ujjain. A total of 875 drilling rigs including 150 fast rigs, have been deployed.

The state Government has sought a loan of one dozen rigs and 50 truck- mounted tankers from UNICEF and other agencies. It has also sought help for providing 5.000 hand pumps along with Patal Ganga vehicles from installation and maintenance and G. I. pipes from UNICEF.

The Government has also opened scarcity relief works employing 10.45 lakh persons every day. It estimates that employment will have to be provided daily to about 12 lakh persons till June:

All this will require money which a government on the brink of bankruptcy can hardly provide. On Thursday, the cheques and bills issues by the Madhya Pradesh Government were dishonoured because it had exceeded its overdraft limit with the Reserve Bank of India.

The government had earlier requested New Delhi to provide Rs 112 "crore to carry on the scarcity relief work and drinking water supply schemes. The Central Government granted only Rs 15 crore, Now the state Government has asked New Delhi to sanction Rs 35 crores for scarcity relief work and Rs 16 crore for solving the drinking water problem.

April 21, 1985

Indian Express