MAHOBA WAITS FOR WATER

At the beginning of November, the Jal Jeevan Mission dashboard indicated glad tidings for Uttar Pradesh's Bundelkhand region.

- Prashant Srivastava

Going by the number of homes with a 'functional household tap connection', the average coverage in Bundelkhand's seven districts-Mahoba, Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi and Lalitpur-stood at 92.6 per cent, compared to 66.9 per cent across the state. Mahoba, located 230 kilometres south of state capital Lucknow, led the success story, with 129,263 of 132,489, or 97.6 per cent of the households covered, up from just 1,612, or 1.2 per cent, when the scheme was launched in 2020.

But go to Mahoba, and the picture is a little different. Raja Bhaiya, a 40-year-old farmer from Bachhechhar Khurd village, had a tap installed at his house a few months ago, but is waiting for water to flow from it. Asharfi Lal, a 57-year-old farmer from the same village, had had a copy of his Aadhaar card taken for documentation by government officials over a year ago, but is still waiting for a tap to be installed in his house. Other households, most of them in a low-lying area, report a similar plight.

Part of the semi-arid geography of the Bundelkhand region, Mahoba saw the number of years with deficient rainfall per decade shoot up from three to seven between 1972-81 and 19922001. A mostly rocky sub-surface adds to its woes. So, whatever rain it does receive fails to percolate down deep enough to form perennial aquifers that can be relied on during the dry months.