Gram panchayat member ensures water to 50 households in peak summer

MANGALURU: Necessity is the mother of invention as the adage goes. But for

Rohinath Shetty

, member of Boliyar

gram panchayat

in

Mangaluru taluk

, the lockdown enforced due to global pandemic – Covid-19, necessity of providing drinking water supply to around 50 houses in his ward saw him innovate. It is the result of this innovation that these

households

are managing the show without venturing outside to slake their thirst during peak summer.


With borewell the sole source of potable water for the wards in the gram panchayat, Rohinath faced a challenge when one of the five borewells in his ward failed. It was this borewell that supplied water to the 50-odd households in his ward. Faced with lack of labourers, plumbers and material, Rohinath took the initiative to get an earth excavating machine aka JCB that

Satish Acharya

, president of the panchayat owned and swung in to action.

Working overnight, the trenches for water pipeline was laid. Rohinath earlier had sourced the plumbing material including the pipes from the nearest hardware shop on loan. Lending him a helping hand in energising the borewell was the management committee of Ammembal Juma Masjid that loaned him rolls of wire that it had purchased for a religious function in the masjid. The local Mescom junior engineer too pared off paperwork to speed up the work.

Located close to

Bearys Institute of Technology

, the area often goes through the throes of water shortage, Rohinath told TOI. “The new borewell to supply water to the households was ready, when the lockdown was enforced. We had to think out of the box in handling this situation, right from getting the (JCB) machine, the materials needed for laying the pipeline to sourcing the wiring material. The masjid committee was great help in this hour of need,” he said.

Mescom authorities too were proactive in giving us temporary connection given the pressing circumstances, he confided. Praveen Markame, a local who saw Rohinath in action from close quarters said it was lead taken by Rohinath in getting the pipeline installed overnight that saw the households did not face any water shortage. Rohinath admits that once the lockdown is lifted, he has a lot of work in getting bills cleared and attending to paperwork.