77 years after independence, these Dhanbad villagers still forced to collect potable water the ‘stone age’ way

DHANBAD: The villagers of Charakkala, Kurhawa, Dhongabera, Mohli, Kolharia and several other hamlets in the Jatakhunti panchayat of Paschmi Tundi block, located some 50 kilometres from the district headquarters of Dhanbad, have been digging pits along the Nagawa River to get water for drinking and cooking purposes since independence. No govt has not taken up any household water supply scheme successfully in this region, so far.
Currently, the groundwater level in the villages has also dropped significantly, particularly during the summer, making the four hand pumps useless.
Despite Jharkhand's formation 24 years ago, the locals continue to dig pits known as “chua” along the river to collect water for drinking and cooking.
During the scorching summer, women of the villages dig pits in the sand at the lower part of the Nagarwa (Jhoria) River to fill their pots with “clean” water. Alternatively, they wait for hours to collect potable water that seeps into the dried-up wells.
On the life-long effort of the villagers, Lalita Devi from Dhongabera village lamented, “I have been fetching drinking water this way since I got married 12 years ago just like my mother-in-law, who used to dig pits along the river.”
Thethatand scheme contractor abandoned project in 2020
A resident of Kurhawa tola, Muni, said, “There’s only one well in the village and during summer when the well dries up, we have to wait for hours to collect the water seeping from the surrounding area. Previously, we used to dig the sand along the Damodar River to get water. Now, with the sand getting exhausted due to mining activities, we dig pits in Nagarwa Jhoria for water.”
In 2016, the erstwhile BJP govt in the state had initiated the Rs 46-crore Thethatand Mega Water Supply Scheme to provide water to the people residing in these villages. The project had a completion deadline of 2018. However, the contractor responsible for laying the pipes abandoned the project in 2020.