The teams rushed by the Hyderabad based National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) to explore and identify potential places that can yield water in the Latur district of Maharashtra found themselves in a strange predicament on Wednesday.
Responding to the scenario where water had to be transported in railway wagons to help people of Latur to overcome one of the worst water crisis, NGRI wanted to do its bit with its own funds, equipment and knowhow. An NGO, Empathy Foundation, which proposed to drill 100 bore-wells in Latur, too requested the NGRI to identify best source of ground water.
The objective was to survey and identify best possible areas for drilling with the hope that at least if one good source in each village is located, it would serve the basic requirements of people who were now forced to trek long distances.
It will be for the government and local administration to take a call on drilling bore wells thereafter.
Two teams, each comprising five persons, headed by a scientist, went to Latur on April 11 have so far surveyed government land in about six villages and earmarked five spots. But when they entered private lands to identify potential ground water sources, people resisted.
Shakeel Ahmed, In-charge Director, NGRI who reached Latur on Wednesday morning to supervise work was clearly taken aback at the distrust shown by people towards teams. “They objected to our equipment. Some thought we were measuring their lands,” he said.
The district administration neither created awareness about the purpose of NGRI’s work nor addressed any of people’s misgivings. “There are apprehensions that if water is struck in a private land others, including the government, would stake claim,” sources said.
“As scientists, our interest is to find the best source to help villagers. It is for the Deputy Collector, Tehsildar and Sarpanches to address people’s apprehensions. We are disappointed at the apathy shown even in an emergency situation when all existing water sources had dried up,” Dr. Ahmed said.
The NGRI official tried to reach out to the Deputy Collector and then met the Tehsildar who apparently admitted it was not easy to convince people. Sarpanch of Ramegaon village, 20 km from Latur too threw up his hands and said people would not agree for the survey in their private lands.
In the absence of a clear policy on ground water as a national resource, such resistance was not surprising. The NGRI teams will cover four more villages and restrict their survey to government lands, schools and offices.
The NGRI teams were also invited by Telangana and Uttar Pradesh governments to do survey for ground water in their districts so that unproductive drilling of bore wells could be avoided.
