Indian villages lie empty as drought forces thousands to flee
In the city of Beed,
clean drinking water has run out and households do not have enough water to
wash clothes, clean dishes or flush the toilet. Hospitals are filling up with
people suffering from dehydration – and gastrointestinal disease from drinking contaminated
water. Residents who can
afford it pay private water tankers the equivalent of £3 for 1,000 litres of
water. Many end up in hospital – even cows refuse to drink the
muddy and salty liquid that has been dredged from the bottom of exhausted dams
and lakes. 'Over the last
one-and-half months, there has been a 50% rise in the number of patients
suffering from diarrhoea, gastritis etc,' said Sandeep Deshmukh, a doctor at
the Beed Civil hospital.
About 20,000 villages in Maharashtra are grappling with a severe drinking water crisis, with no water
left in 35 major dams. In 1,000 smaller dams, water levels are below 8%. The
rivers that feed the dams have been transformed into barren, cracked earth.
Hundreds of Indian villages have been evacuated as a historic drought forces families to abandon their homes in search of water. The country has seen extremely high temperatures in recent weeks. On Monday the capital, Delhi, saw its highest ever June temperature of 48C. In Rajasthan, the city of Churu recently experienced highs of 50.8C, making it the hottest place on the planet.
Further south, less than 250 miles from the country’s commercial capital, Mumbai, village after village lies deserted. Estimates suggest up to 90% of the area’s population has fled, leaving the sick and elderly to fend for themselves in the face of a water crisis that shows no sign of abating.
The village of Hatkarwadi, about 20 miles from Beed in Maharashtra state, is almost completely deserted. Wells and handpumps have run dry in the 45C heatwave. The drought, which officials say is worse than the 1972 famine that affected 25 million people across the state, began early in December. By the end of May, Hatkarwadi had been deserted with only 10-15 families remaining out of a population of more than 2,000.
With 80% of districts in neighbouring Karnataka and 72% in Maharashtra hit by drought and crop failure, the 8 million farmers in these two states are struggling to survive. More than 6,000 tankers supply water to villages and hamlets in Maharashtra daily, as conflict brews between the two states over common water resources. The acute water shortage has devastated villagers’ agriculture-based livelihood. Crops have withered and died, leaving livestock starving and with little to drink. Major crops, including maize, soya, cotton, sweet lime, pulses and groundnuts – drivers of the local economy – have suffered...
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/12/indian-villages-lie-empty-as-drought-forces-thousands-to-flee
