Residents of Kanchi village suffer without proper supply of water, demand action

The village is located on the Palar river bed near Maduranthagam.

Until a few months back the villagers were provided with water twice daily. But, now they claimed that they get water only twice a week, a situation which has greatly affected their daily schedule.

As the water supply started dwindling, the villagers demanded the panchayat officials to supply water at least once a day, but no action was taken. Agitated over this, they staged a road roko and blocked traffic on the main road with empty cans recently. The officials pacified the agitators by assuring them of a regular supply of water through tankers.

“But the officials did not keep up their promise. The water was supplied through tanker only once after we staged the protest,” said R Karthik, a resident of the village.

He blamed the brick kilns and other factories for the present crisis.

“They are taking away huge amount of groundwater for their own use. This is the major reason for water scarcity in our village,” Karthik added.

When contacted, Palayanalur village panchayat secretary N Babu told DT Next, “We are receiving only 2.8 lakh litres of water, but we need more than 5 lakh litres. We even tried to put extra borewell on the Palar bed but there is not enough groundwater that can be pumped. We have planned to supply water to the village through tankers soon.”

He also added that the panchayat has advised the factories not to waste water.