The Indian Railways has sent a ‘water train’, a train carrying 5,50,000 litres of drinking water as per a humanitarian gesture to the parched district of Latur, in Maharashtra state.
On Monday, April 11, the Indian Railways sent forth a train having 10 wagons to carry the precious, life giving water from Miraj (Western Maharashtra) to Latur district in the region of Marathwada.
The train reached Latur at 4 a.m., after traversing a 375 km journey. It was welcomed with great cheer and fanfare. There was a sense of relief among top civil and police officials, the mayor of Latur and general public. At the same time, security was beefed up around the train to avoid any untoward incident.
Officials began off-loading of water in a dried up well owned by a local framer situated near the railways station. This water will be carried later to a filtration plant, using pipes.
After the process of filtration, which will make the water potable, water will be dispatched to remote villages in the district. Water will be transported in tankers to people who are awaiting the water with great expectation. There are kilometres of queues of colourful plastic and steel pots, pitchers and bucket made of hundreds of people who are waiting for water.
This water initiative was launched by Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Railways to help people in his home state reeling under water crisis. The crisis was especially severe in Latur district villages, which have a population of 2.45 crores.
As per instructions of Suresh Prabhu, 50 tank wagons like ones used to transport milk and oil were dispatched to Kota workshop in Rajasthan, where they were cleaned thoroughly and made ready for undertaking the journey to Sangli where they were filled with water.
Indian Railways is also planning more of such trips for water needs to fulfil the thirst of villages of Latur district. But the schedule of such trains has not yet been finalized. At present, 15,000 villages of the state mostly in Osmanabad, Beed and Latur district are reeling from severe water scarcity.
Latur has been rocked by stray incidents of violence related to water shortage. As such, the police has set up prohibitory orders till May 3. Also public reservoirs and storage tanks for water are being protected by armed guards of the police face.
Some villagers of the district had to trek over 12 kms for getting a pot of water. As such domestic water pots are kept secure under lock and key. There is a cessation of teaching at schools, which have been closed. Social events like marriage have also been stalled. Agriculture activities have come to a close.
The 10 wagons of the water train were dispatched to Latur from Miraj railways station (from Maharashtra’s’ Sangli district) where they were filled with water. Each wagon had a capacity of 50,000 litres.
The district administration had got hold of a large well near the Latur station for storing the water, prior to curing at the filtration plant. The success of train running status of the water train is inspiring further action. A second water train made of 50 wagons is set to be ready to store and transport water to Latur, according to officials.
