Even after a decade, this small village situated in north Goa does not have basic sanitization facilities. After the Goa CM boasted about the provision of basic sanitation facilities like toilets and tap water across the state of Goa, the remote hamlet of Shelop Budruk situated in Sattari is still lacking basic sanitation facilities like toilets and potable drinking water, and due to this villagers are suffering from various ailments.
According to the TOI reports, three years after the villagers of Shelop Budruk, under the Nargargao panchayat in Sattari were struck by a diarrhoeal infection had once again came into the news with the new bout of diarrhea due to the lack of basic facilities such as toilets in their village.
The cause of the problem is said to be open defecation due to lack of toilets and sourcing of drinking water from the local stream in the absence of a treated water supply.
According to the reports, Nothing has changed for the residents of Shelop Budruk for the past decade and they are suffering a similar fate for the past 10 years now despite constant assurances from the local MLA saying that their issues will be addressed soon.
We are living in the Voter Bank system wherein certain segments of the society only get all the privileges and unless these is changes there won’t be any real development across the state or country.
It may be recalled that the Goa state had been officially declared free from open defecation around two years ago, but these villagers say that 20% of the households in the hamlet have no toilets and therefore residents defecate in the nearby stream.
Goa recently announced that it has provided tap connections to 100% rural households under the Jal Jeevan Mission, water supplied to Shelop Budruk is turbid and unfit for consumption, local panch Parag Khadilkar said.
Meanwhile, the sarpanch of Nargargao village, panchayat Prashant Marathe told TOI that his panchayat has received 170 applications for new toilets, including 12 from Shelop Budruk village. “Their applications have already been sanctioned. We will resolve the problems of the people soon,” he said. But the residents of Shelop Budruk said they have been waiting for assurances to be fulfilled for the last ten years now.
For Shelop Budruk locals, the stream serves as a toilet as well as a source of drinking water
“We have been getting turbid water for the last ten years. We don’t consume the tap water as it can be harmful to our health. Water is supplied through tankers to us on alternate days and we prefer to use this water,” said villager Deshmita Gaonkar.
The villagers have had collected the tap water and sent photographs to the junior engineer of the Valpoi water supply department last week, but have not received any response yet.
The condition of the tap water is pathetic states the report, according to the villagers the tap water needs to run for an hour at least to get rid of the muddy water running through the pipelines. “Tap water received at all 60 houses in the village is turbid. We have to keep the taps running for several hours to release the muddy water, and this leads to exorbitant bills,” Gawas said adding that as for toilets are concerned, the panchayat has never conducted any survey to check whether the villagers have toilets or not, but during elections, they visit our village begging for votes.
The local MLA and the Panch members do not bother to find out about the availability of the toilets for the villagers but the same people visit the village for asking the Votes from villagers.
The story can keep going on and on and on, but what will be the results? Will the local MLA or state administration wake up and do something for these neglected villagers? The people of a small village suffering from diarrhea on regular intervals and this is happening for the past decade but nothing has been done so far. This is just one village, there are many villages in Goa that has a similar or worst condition and we call our state high capita income with 100 percent education.
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