Over 1.7L in division still rely on tankers

KOLHAPUR: Despite excess rainfall in July and August, as many as 77 tankers are still supplying drinking water to over 1.7 lakh people in the Pune division.
Pune, Satara, Sangli and Solapur districts have received good rainfall so far this monsoon. At present, only one tanker is supplying drinking water to three villages in Solapur district. But Sangli district is dependent on 40 tankers, followed by Pune district where 34 tankers are supplying water to 21 villages.
Barring June, the division has received above normal rainfall in this monsoon, but some areas are still facing water shortage.Kolhapur gets 337.8mm rainfall in June, while the neighbouring Sangli district gets 85.2mm rain. Kolhapur received 158mm rainfall in June, which is 46.8% of the average. On the other hand, Sangli received 111.4mm rainfall, which is 130.8% of the average.
In the meantime, 20 tankers are supplying drinking water to Baramati tehsil alone, the home town of former Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. The other two tehsils in the district Purandar and Daund are getting water through 10 and 4 tankers respectively, while the remaining tehsils are not dependent on tankers.
Only two tankers have been deployed in Mann tehsil of Satara district, thanks to the widescale implementation of Jalyukta Shivar campaign for water conservation. Sangli district is still reeling under scarcity with 40 tankers supplying drinking water to 94,774 people in 46 villages and 198 hamlets.
Jat tehsil is dependent on 11 tankers at present, followed by Khanapur (8), Tasgaon (9), Kavathe Mahankal (3) and Atpadi (9). Not a single water tanker has been deployed in Kolhapur district so far.
The eastern parts of Sangli and Satara districts are known to receive low rainfall. These are also the perennially water scarcity-hit areas. Over the last two years, the Sangli district administration has constructed more than 600 check dams that have helped increase the level of groundwater. However, because of poor monsoon in 2014 and 2015, these dams are completely dry and the groundwater could not last long. Water is pumped through borewells putting more stress on the resources.
Even as the two-year backlog of rainfall shortage has been covered this year, some areas are still facing water shortage.
The state government provides financial assistance for constructing percolation tanks and water ponds at farms for increasing irrigation and improving groundwater levels. All these collective efforts were supposed to bring down the dependency on tankers, but the shortage of rainfall over the last two years have put pressure on these resources as well.
State water resources minister Vijay Shivtare said some areas such as Purandar, Mann, Karmala and Mohol always get low rainfall because of which more water conservation schemes should be implemented there. "Concentrated efforts are needed to tide over the water scarcity situation. We should not forget that in 2014, around 1,000 tankers were supplying drinking water during summer, while the number was above 100 in monsoon. The number has now come down to 77, which can be reduced further if we get more rainfall in September," he said.