Women of Kameswaram walk 2 km daily for a pot of water

Every greeting and night, the women of Kameswaram sportfishing hamlet, successful Kilvelur taluk, acceptable retired with bare pots connected a 2-km locomotion to fetch drinking h2o — a travel that ends adjacent a cemetery, on a acheronian and unsafe agelong of road.

The sportfishing village, location to much than 320 families, has been without a reliable drinking h2o root for years. Piped h2o proviso nether the Kollidam strategy has not reached the settlement, forcing residents to beryllium connected a lone manus pump located extracurricular the colony limits.

“After the tsunami, the groundwater present turned salty. All our wells became useless,” said Sakunthala V., a fisherwoman. “There is nary h2o near wrong the village. This manus pump is our lone option.”

Although pipelines nether the Jal Jeevan Mission person been laid crossed Kameswaram, not a driblet of h2o flows done them. “The pipes are there, but they are dry,” said Mala M., different resident. “We support waiting, but thing changes.”

Reaching the manus pump is itself an ordeal. For astir a kilometre, the roadworthy has nary thoroughfare lights. Women locomotion done stretches flanked by eucalyptus and cashew trees, often successful implicit darkness. The pump is located adjacent to a burial ground.

“There person been incidents of chain-snatching and threats,” said a resident. “People fell successful the dark. Still, we spell — alone, time oregon nighttime — due to the fact that h2o cannot wait.”

An effort to acceptable up a reverse osmosis drinking h2o works a fewer years agone failed owed to deficiency of maintenance, leaving the colony erstwhile again babelike connected the unsafe route.

When contacted, a elder authoritative of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board successful Nagapattinam said the contented would beryllium looked into.

EOM/