Underground cabling work damages pipelines, Kendrapada villages hit by water crisis

Kendrapada: Ragada, Chingudipal, Aradapal, Nator, Rahangi and several other villages under Sukinda block of Jajpur district are facing a severe water crisis owing to the damage to water pipelines during underground cabling work by a private telecom company.

“Due to the damage, nearly 2,500 villagers have been forced to rely on contaminated canal water for the past two months. Each day, the situation worsens and it might become critical in the coming months,” said Jemamani Munda (43) of Ragada village.


Talking about the ordeal of walking 2km to fetch water from the canal, Saraswati Banasingh (28) of Ragada said, “We are compelled to drink canal water because the pipelines are broken.”

The burden falls heavily on women, who have to carry heavy pots of water daily. “It feels like we are living in medieval times. Many villagers are suffering from waterborne diseases. While some boil the water, most drink it directly without filtering,” said Anjali Dehuri, sarpanch of Chingudipal gram panchayat.

Acknowledging the crisis, Kartik Chandra Das, assistant engineer of the rural water supply and sanitation department in Sukinda, said, “A private telecom company damaged the pipelines during careless excavation work. All damaged pipelines will be repaired soon and villagers will again receive water through the supply system. We are working to resolve the issue at the earliest and will take legal action against the company responsible.”


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