Mirzapur: In the summer of August last year in a village in Uttar Pradesh, six-year-old Shivansh jumped into the water for the first time and felt happy.
Nearly 76 years after independence, piped water was supplied for the first time to the people of Lahuriya Dah village located on the hills of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.
The then District Magistrate Divya Mittal started the supply of water through the pipeline.
Until now the village’s 1,200 people depended on a nearby spring for water, which dried up in summer. In such a situation, tankers were the only means to meet the water needs of the village. For this the villagers had to pay money.
Kaushalendra Gupta, a resident of the village, said, “We were spending the entire year’s budget on water. How difficult the task of bringing the water pipeline to Lahuriya Dah was, can be gauged from the fact that in the absence of proper planning The village was also not included in the Jal Jeevan Mission about a decade ago.
Another resident, Jeevanlal Yadav, remembering the old days, said that he used to go to the plains to sell milk and return with water in containers.
He said that for 25-30 years, water was supplied to the village through tankers and his entire budget was spent on this. During this period, there were often fights between people and tension arose.
Kaushalendra Gupta said that after the previous project worth more than Rs 4.87 crore did not yield results and there was no water supply to the village, we met the District Magistrate and she took note of the problem. She started new efforts and new projects worth more than Rs 10 crore were approved.
Lahuriya Dah falls within the limits of Deohar Gram Panchayat. The local administration then sought the help of geophysicists and other technical experts from Banaras Hindu University and Jal Jeevan Mission, UP Jal Nigam, Namami Gange to find out suitable technology to take the water pipeline to the village situated on hard rocky surface. Formed a joint team of officers and Chief Development Officer.
After this, a separate proposal for this village was sent to the government, which was approved. Finally, on 31 August 2023, tap water supply started in the village.
The only well in the village has been used for rainwater harvesting, while an artificial dam has been built to collect water for animals.
Lahuriya Dah, located 49 km from Mirzapur district headquarters on the Madhya Pradesh border, has a mixed population of Kol, Dharkar, Yadav, Pal and Kesharwani communities.
