Tap water after 15-year wait

Kirti Pande / TNN / Mar 11, 2008, 00:50 IST

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The 4,500 residents of Nimbhi, a small, nondescript village in Morshi tehsil of Amravati district, lived only on assurances from authorities.

AMRAVATI: With no water supply system for the past 15 years, the 4,500 residents of Nimbhi, a small, nondescript village in Morshi tehsil of Amravati district, lived only on assurances from authorities. Depending on water bodies and wells to meet all their needs; every summer, when these sources went dry, was a challenge for this village.
This year, the wells went dry in February itself, signalling woeful times ahead.And Nimbhi was not alone; 69 other villages of the tehsil with a collective population of 1.59 lakh people shared its plight.
Over the last decade and half, Nimbhi villagers had earned a reputation of demonstrating for tap water supply in their village. Each year they also threatened to disrupt the water supply to Amravati, through the Upper Wardha project. In fact, almost every Nimbhi villager has breached the water supply pipeline to Amravati city to meet local needs, some or the other time.
Last year, the demonstrations turned so violent that the police had to open fire to disperse the mob. This was followed by another zila parishad assurance to provide a water supply system in the affected villages in an year��s time.

On Monday, Nimbhi and nine other villages were among the first to get a local water supply system. The remaining villages have been promised tap water in each house over the next 12 months.
The Maharashtra Jal Pradhikaran (MJP) is implementing the plan for supplying water to 70 villages of Morshi tehsil.
In fact, a Rs 52-crore water supply project was approved way back in 1998, but work was completed only in 2007. The management and handling of the water supply scheme too was handed over to the zilla parishad, but from February 2007-July 2007, the zilla parishad allegedly did not take any steps towards maintenance of the water supply scheme, which costs Rs 11 lakh every month.

So, the gram panchayats of these 70 villages never got water and, so, never paid their bills. Considering these 'defaults' on water bills, MJP put further work on hold from July 2007.
Also, the zila parishad, sources alleged, was not interested in running and maintaining the scheme. However, Nimbhi villagers took out another morcha lately, after which the zila parishad executive engineer M B Dhone agreed to take charge of the water supply system in 15 days.
Talking to TOI, Nimbhi sarpanch Rajendra Thakre said, "It is like a winning a battle. It was only after we threatened a fast unto death, did the officials take cognisance of our demands. Not only Nimbhi but 60 other villages too benefited from us."
Notwithstanding the big delay, Nimbhi gram panchayat member Sharad Gayki expressed gratitude towards officials of MJP, local MLAs Sahebrao Tatte and Harshawardhan Deshmukh, and zila parishad members.
A villager Balasaheb Dhakulkar said that they used to worry how they would meet their water needs in the summer for the last 15 years, "this year we have one worry less".: New oil sands and coal-fired electricity plants in Canada will have to capture and store the bulk of their greenhouse gases as part of new regulations due out this week, a Canadian newspaper reported on Monday.

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