Karnataka Water Crisis: Schools, Anganwadi Centres Bear The Brunt

A woman spent over a month digging a 45-foot-deep well to provide a consistent supply of water to children at an Anganwadi centre in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada district. She set out on the arduous task after noticing a grave water scarcity in the region, forcing the teachers to bring water from elsewhere. Each day, she spent hours digging a depth of one-and-a-half feet with the help of basic tools like hoe, pickaxe, basket and rope, laboriously hauling tens of buckets of soil. Now, her hard work proved fruitful, quenching the community's thirst. 

This is not a fictional tale, but the reality of Gauri Nayka, a 55-year-old woman from Sirsi, Uttara Kannada, who took it upon herself to bring water to the local Anganwadi children. Her story reflects the challenges that the people of Karnataka are grappling with amid the ongoing water crisis.

Schools, Anganwadis Suffer In Water Crisis

Karnataka has been witnessing an acute water shortage over the last few months, which is particularly worsening as the summer is approaching. The poor rainfall in 2023 has led to one of the worst water crises that the State has faced in years. In the capital city, Bengaluru, over 3,000 borewells have dried up, according to reports.

Schools and Anganwadis are failing to function smoothly amid the burgeoning crisis, as students do not even get water to drink. In some rural regions of the State, students have reportedly stopped going to school over the last few months. In Bengaluru, some of the government-run schools have temporarily suspended classes while some have returned to the online mode, owing to the the water shortage.

A private school official spoke to the Indian Express about the issue. “The borewell has run dry for the past week and despite repeated calls to several water tankers, we were unsuccessful in getting one. A lot of tankers are now unavailable because they are now under the government ambit and we are finding it difficult to access their services unlike before. Since ours is a homeschool, we didn’t want to take the risk of continuing our school without water. So, we decided to shut it temporarily until the issue is resolved."

The Karnataka government has sought drought relief from the Centre for the past few months, while also setting up meetings to tackle the severe shortage. The government has also taken over private water tankers and fixed price caps to manage the issue. Meanwhile, residents have been instructed to judiciously use available water and a fine has been imposed on wastage.