Many areas of Marungapuri, Vaiyampatti and Manapparai blocks in Tiruchi district have been facing acute drinking water scarcity due to dwindling yield at the points of sources of drinking water projects.

There was no major issue in supplying drinking water to the habitations until January. Drinking water shortage began to surface in some villages in February. It has become intense since the onset of summer in March. More villages continue to join the list of villages that face short supply of drinking water in the district.

There were over 400 village panchayats in the district. According to sources, drinking water issues were reported in at least 50 panchayats in the district. They were mainly in Manapparai, Vaiyampatti and Manapparai blocks. Some villages in Thuraiyur were also facing severe stress in drinking water supply from the combined drinking water schemes.

In Manapparai, the residents were supplied drinking water once in two to three days. It is now supplied once in three to four days. Similarly, the residents of several villages around Manapparai were supplied water once in three to four days. Since the supply was erratic, they depended on bore wells and open wells for their daily needs.

Villages such as Veerappur, Inamputhur, Puduvadi, Puthanatham and several others are under the grip of acute shortage of drinking water. “We face erratic water supply. We do not know when water is supplied. We depend upon the open wells and bore wells for fetching water to meet our daily needs,” says Nagaraj, a resident of Veerappur near Manapparai.

There were instances of residents belonging to villages near Puthanatham staging road blockades demanding regular water supply.

According to official sources, there were some issues in supplying water to the residents due to depleting water tables and extreme dry weather conditions. Most of the villages in the district were covered under various combined drinking water schemes.

When contacted, Collector V. Saravanan told The Hindu that there were no major issues in supplying water to the residents by tapping water from local sources. However, there were some issues in supplying Cauvery water to the villages, which were covered under the combined drinking water schemes. He would visit Manapparai and neighbouring villages in a day or two to take stock of the ground situation. Suitable action would be taken to improve the water supply to the villages.