It is 11:30 am. The bright sun is blazing on a field in Bhatangli village in Latur district of Maharashtra, some 500 km from Mumbai. Asha Bhagotmale and her neighbours walked four km before they could find a field where a kind farmer is sharing his borewell water with people like her.
“We have to walk a few km every day in search of water,” Bhagotmale says. She usually starts her day at 6 am in search of water but in these days of scarcity, she sometimes has to set out at midnight. “I have to fill any kind of water; even if it is not potable, I can at least use that for doing other chores,” she says.
Latur water crisis: In Latur town, the government sends a tanker every 20-30 days, and locals have to depend on private operators to procure water.
Miles of fertile, black soil farms are dried, and the crisis has pierced hamlets such as Bhatangli, Bhatkheda and Sonavati. With two more months of summer round the corner, where the mercury can soar above 40 degree celsius, Latur and the neighbouring districts of Beed and Osmanabad, in the Marathwada region, are facing one of the worst droughts in four decades. Marathwada is largely an agricultural belt in Maharashtra, one of the most industrialised states of the country.
As rains turned deceptive for a third year in a row, the crisis aggravated. In 2015, the state received 59.4 per cent deficient rainfall while the national shortfall was 14 per cent compared to the normal.
The drought in the region is so bad that stored water in the dams of Marathwada are as low as five-six per cent; last year, it was 18 per cent at this time. The groundwater level in the region has dipped at an alarming rate. Most of the rivers and reservoirs in Latur district are dry. Manjara dam, which is the source of water in Beed, Osmanabad and Latur districts, has dried completely.
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