Sukendu Koch, a resident of Tangaon informed that Tangaon is 20 kms towards the north-east from Mancachar town and a NEC (North East Council) Road leads to a place near the villages but from there onwards, one has to walk miles to reach the source of water and then struggle to collect drinking water from there.

“Drinking water has remained one of the biggest problems for the villagers in this area. Women from the villages form groups and then move miles towards the hills to reach the source of water. But their struggles do not end there. They have to dig near the hills and when spring water surfaces, then only can they collect it,” Koch informed.

Koch said that it takes about five hours to fetch a pot of water which is used very carefully as it is more precious than any other thing in the village.

Bodruzzaman Firdowsy, an academician who often writes on the plight of villagers under South Salmara - Mancachar Sub-division of Dhubri district said that most of the villagers living in places located along the Assam - Meghalaya inter - state border are deprived of the basic needs for life.

“Though a very small section of villagers has been able to apply modern agriculture technology to increase the production of paddy, a vast portion of the population is still lagging behind in this direction. But water scarcity is the main problem that people from these villages face,” Firdowsy pointed out.

When contacted, Sub-divisional officer (civil) of South Salmara - Mancachar Sub - division of Dhubri district, Sayeed Isfakur Rahman said that he was aware of the scarcity in those villages and steps are being taken to supply the drinking water. “A new drinking water project costing Rs. 2 crore has been prepared and sent to the government for sanction and if this drinking water project is set up, villages with acute water scarcity will be covered and there will be no scarcity of drinking water,” Rahman added.

According to official sources, there were 21 drinking water projects in the sub - division but 9 drinking water projects have been eroded and only 7 projects are reportedly functional. On the other hand, an ambitious project on drinking water which would solve the water scarcity of Dhubri resident is running behind the scheduled time of completion.

Over 1.2 lakh residents of Dhubri town are resentful over the fact that despite the completion of the laying of underground pipes in the town area last year, there is hardly any progress of other works like a water reservoir and a treatment plant. Residents of Dhubri town alleged that this ambitious drinking water project being implemented by Dhubri Division of Assam Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board which costs Rs. 9.25 crore, owing to dilly dallying in sanctioning of fund and execution of works, is not only running behind the time schedule but has raised serious apprehensions of whether would be completed at all or not.

Subhankar Ghose, a resident of ward no 14 says, “In view of the acute drinking water scarcity in our locality, we along with residents of other wards had placed a demand for supply water to the Dhubri Municipal Board and after much persuasion over the years, it was sanctioned in 2006 and now almost four years have elapsed and there is no sign of the completion of project.”

In order to solve the problem of scarcity of drinking water in Dhubri town, Chairman of Dhubri - Gouripur Development Authority, Parsuram Dubey who took keen interest in this project and pursued matters at the high level to get the project sanctioned is however optimistic about the completion of project at the end of this year. “I am also worried about this project as I have moved from pillar to post to get the project sanctioned and for the pipe laying work which was completed last year itself but due to non - completion of the rest of the work, the project could not be commissioned in time,” Dubey said.

Dubey also informed that residents of Dhubri town expressed doubts about the completion of the project as in an earlier case, a drinking water project started in 1987 was never completed but this time around, he hopes that this will not be the case.

When contacted, Executive Engineer of Dhubri division Assam Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board, R. Talukdar said, “We have received Rs. 3.23 crore out of project cost of Rs. 9.25 and work amounting to these released funds has already been completed. I have heard that the next phase of the funds has been released but till now I have not received any.”

Similarly, the drinking water project for Gouripur town and its suburbs is yet to be completed owing to the non - sanctioning of sufficient funds and as a result, the drinking project which was started 18 years back is yet to be functional.

In Dhubri district, there are as many as 17 drinking water projects sanctioned at various points of time from 1994 to 2008 but owing to dilly dallying in releasing the required fund, all the projects are lying incomplete.

Bijoy Sharma