Bihar faces water crisis, govt does not know

Aurangabad: Chandradev Yadav has been wiping himself with a wet piece of cloth in the name of taking a bath for the last two months. Water to bathe is a luxury he can't afford.

But he's not alone. Lakhs of residents of central Bihar are living this way, as the entire region reels under acute water shortage.

The temperature is soaring; taps and wells have gone dry and the rivers have turned into narrow canals. In a waterless land, those surviving are living a nightmare.

“We haven’t been able to take a bath for three months now. We have to use a wet washcloth to clean ourselves. Even the government doesn’t give us any attention,” Chandradev says.

The only respite are the isolated wells, many of which are also drying up fast. Fetching water from these wells could easily mean a six-kilometer long walk.

In a state where rice forms the staple food, people have given it up simply because cooking it requires a lot of water.

“We eat roti, bhat (rice), litti (a bread made of mixing dry flour) but now we are having to eat food without gravy,” a villager, Sumitra Devi, complains. Sumitra Devi's diet indicates how critical water is even for the most basic food needs.

Drought has affected over 15,000 villages in central Bihar. Famine has forced many villagers to flee their houses. The question now is: what will it take for the authorities to take notice?

“Information about this crisis has still not reached the information department. We have heard it from you. We will make necessary arrangement to supply water to the drought-stricken areas,” Engineer-in-Chief Bihar Government Services Madan Kumar said when contacted by CNN-IBN.

So till help pours in, the people of this region will keep waiting and will continue living a scorching summer nightmare.

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