Watch: Nashik Women Risk Lives To Fetch Water From Deep Well Amid Water Crisis

Nashik, Maharashtra, is experiencing an alarming water crisis, which is expected to worsen as at least eight of the district’s 24 dams have gone entirely empty. Every day, people in the Cholmukh hamlet in Nashik put their lives in danger by bringing their family water. To collect water from shallow puddles, they have been descending into deep, dry wells. Additionally, women must walk in the heat for at least a km to obtain the water.

One of the women who entered the well to retrieve the water told news agency ANI, “We need water every day but there is no water in our village.” The villager continued by describing the daily risks women take to their lives in order to get water from the well. They have been experiencing a water shortage in this area for the past two years, she informed the news agency.

Another person who spoke to ANI added that certain women descend into the well every day because there isn’t any water since there hasn’t been any rain. Some mentioned that they sometimes have to trek in the sun for two hours to get only two pots of water.

According to a local, “Sometimes there are even fights.” Additionally, the residents said that the modest amount of water they are able to get from the well is contaminated, which might pose health risks.

Officials in the Nashik region claim that at least eight of the twenty-four dams have no water stored in them, making the already dire condition of water shortage worse in the sweltering heat. As of June 5, they announced, 5,862 MCFT (8.93%) of water stock was reserved by the remaining 16 dams.

As per the report by India.com, experts believe that the relatively dry monsoon of last year—during which the Nashik district got just 70% of the typical rainfall—is to blame for the low water storage. As a result, the region experienced a drought-like condition.

The majority of wells and other water sources in Nashik’s rural regions have dried up, adding to the people’s misery due to the region’s unusual heat wave, the report added.