Free water in Goa a joke: Tribals like Makadmare and Dhangars walk 3-4 kms everyday for drinking water

PONDA: While the Goa government has offered 16,000 liters of free drinking water to every household and other political parties like the Aam Aadmi Party and the All India Trinamool Congress are falling over each other to make new promises daily to Goan voters, the fact remains that several settlements in rural Goa, particularly those of the tribals have to source drinking water from long distances everyday.

Volunteers of Goemcho Goenkar – a social forum, visted the tribal settlements of the Makadmare tribe (also known as Wanarmare or Vanarmare) at Nirankal, which falls in the Bethoda panchayat area of Ponda taluka and discussed the water woes of the people. The Wanarmare have to source drinking water from more than 3-4 kms away, and while the men do menial jobs for a living, the women folk walk several kilometers to and fro everday to source drinking water.

Water tanks installed by the district authorities are broken and there is no system to store water, though the PWD department sends a water tanker twice or thrice a week. For now, the tribals try to store as much water as they can in plastic drums and buckets but that lasts just a day or two.

As the Wanarmare tribe are still considered as outcast or untouchables, most people in the neighborhood do not want to help them. About 5 years ago, their dwelling was attacked by residents in the vicinity who wanted to evict them. There is inter-clan or inter-tribe rivalry between the Wanarmare and other tribes living in the area and the monkey hunters have to hunt their own source of drinking water, said Tulip DeSouza of the Goemcho Goenkar.

A similar situation is witnessed by other tribals in different parts of Goa, including the Dhangars. While the Makadmare are the worst hit or most-affected when it comes to drinking water and other basic necessities, other tribal settlements in Goa manage somehow with tankers provided by the local administration.

However, the tanker supply is erratic and not reliable and there are weeks when the tanker arrives only twice or thrice during the entire week, says DeSouza, who has visited most of the tribal settlements in Goa.

Social activist Darshana Saxena whose team has been working with the Makadmare, providing the women folk with basic skills training like sewing or making household items out of coconut shells and locally-sourced wood, says drinking water, electricity and sanitation are a major problem in the Makadmare settlement at Nirankal.