This is a typical case of the saying in Kannada, of the Almighty providing but the priest denying.
The borewell sunk into the water tank in Abbani in Shapoor Gram Panchayat recently goes down till more than 1,200 feet.
Although water is available in the borewell, the people cannot get the water more than once in two days as the pump connected has poor horse-power.
A slight relief for the residents is that a private donor provides water regularly.
Private borewells
In recent months, farmers sunk more than 20 private borewells in the village. Only two, however, yield water.
“Abbani has only one public borewell, sunk in the tank bed, that yields water. Also, water was available only as deep as 1,200 feet. The borewell needs a pump with at least 25 hp. But, the 15 hp pump nor the cables connected to the motor are good enough to lift water from such depths,” says Neeruganti Venkateshappa.
Most other residents of Abbani agree that the deeper a borewell the greater the power of the motor required. “But the authorities have failed to realise this. Connecting a 10-15 hp motor to a borewell as deep as this is an old-fashioned and useless idea,” they say.
Desperate measures
Begging farm owners for water from their private borewells has become a very common thing in Abbani.
“We get water every alternate day. But then too, we get barely a couple of pots of water. So, we have no option other than to request the farm owners to provide us water from the taps installed in their fields or their houses,” says a boy Chalapathi, who brings water on his bicycle from miles away. “This too, however, is not sufficient for our needs,” he adds.
The problem has only aggravated in the last couple of months. The main reason for this is the failure of the motor to pump out water from the borewell.
‘No other way’
“A new borewell will certainly not yield any more water,” says Srinivasappa, a petty shop owner at Abbani.
“A private company provides us water once in two or three days, relieving us of the intensity of the problem to a small extent. Otherwise, we required to travel all the way till the neighbouring village to get water.”
Problem areas
The Zilla Panchayat has identified Shapoor, Agrahara Somarasanahalli and Nandamballi in the Gram Panchayat as villages with severe water shortage. Agrahara Somarasanahalli is in far worse condition than Abbani, as it does not have even a public tap that yields water.
All borewells sunk in the village recently failed and the Gram Panchayat is forced to purchase water from private parties to supply to the
residents.