Amulal B Deshmukh, a resident of Ujid Village in Latur district, has to walk at least 4-5 km to fetch water each day. “Cattle don’t get water regularly,” he says. “There has been no water in the hand pumps for over a month now and one has to devote four hours a day to get water,” says Deshmukh.

Ramarjun Bansode, a resident of Sakhara Village, on the outskirts of Latur, shares 3,000 litres of water with two other households by paying ₹500 to a private tanker. This translates to a paltry 14 litres of water per person per day assuming an average family size of five. This is used for household chores and lasts for 15 days, he says adding: “We struggle to do our daily chores especially bathing each day.”

Life in Latur town is not any better. Travel agent Roby Chaurasia had to relocate his wife and daughter to his parents’ residence at Nashik due to water shortage.

At Sakhara village, water supply of gram panchayat has been stopped, according to Tukaram Gyandev Godse, the Deputy Sarpanch. “Water sources of farmers have been taken over. Water from the wells of farmers is pumped to a common well via a pipeline from where people draw. Farmers have given up sowing their land to help fellow villagers and are providing water to them. The bottomline is, we have to take care of each other,” says Godse.

However, the money promised by the state government to the owners of the water bodies is yet to be disbursed. “We are yet to receive the money promised to us for the last 7 months,” say Balaji Hanumant and Anna Saheb Dattabhau Godse, two of whom have provided water from their fields.

“We do not know when we will receive the money. It seems as if the government officials are biding time until the onset of monsoon,” they say. Small farmers have been particularly hit. “Many small farmers sold their cattle for a pittance just to eke out a living due to the fact that they have no fodder to offer. Cattle are dying of starvation due to water scarcity,.” the Deputy Sarpanch adds.

There is a feeling that nothing much is done for the rural areas when compared to the urban districts. Rajkumar Sastapure, District President, Shetkari Sanghatana Latur, a farmer’s association, asks: “ Does the onus of serving the nation lies only with the farmers?”. “No one wants to provide water to Bharat while everyone does, for India,” he says on the discrimination between rural and urban India.

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