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Narendra Modi may be on a campaign selling his model of governance but Gujarat is reeling under severe drought that has left Saurashtra and Kutch regions parched and people battling odds to get even a pot of drinking water.
An estimated 10 to 15 per cent of the cash crops may have failed because of the drought this year that has come on the back of 11 normal monsoons.
The water situation in half of the state has worsened with the onset of summer as big and small water reservoirs have dried up, forcing women in rural area to travel long distances, sometimes two to three kms, everyday for water.
Modi had, in his speeches in the national capital and in Kolkata recently, made claims regarding supply of piped water for long distances, thanks to Narmada projects.
But familiar scenes of people jostling to get a bucket of water when a tanker arrives once in a while in their village or urban area are common in Kutch, Saurashtra and some northern parts of the state.
"Our children are thirsty as there is severe drinking water problem. Officials here are merely giving us hollow promises. No steps have been taken for regular supply of water by tanker to us," said Saroj Makwana, a resident of Jetpur town in Rajkot district where water is supplied every 10 days.
"Ours is the remotest area where drinking water is being supplied once in 15 days. And despite our repeated representation to local municipal officers, the condition is unchanged," said a frustrated Champaben Rabari of Amreli city. Protests and bandhs are order of the day in affected areas. Amreli city had observed a total bandh recently on the issue of non-supply of water. Women taking out protest marches with empty water pots has become a common scene in affected areas.
Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat had witnessed acute water scarcity in 1998 and 1999 when successive years of deficient rains had made life hell for the people of these three regions of the state.
But 11 good monsoons from 2001 to 2011 had made people forget those years of scarcity, driving Gujarat to double digit agriculture growth.
The state government also appeared to have taken the situation lightly when the rain goods were smiling as two major projects -- Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada river and Kalpsar project -- conceived to solve drinking water problems of scarcity-prone regions, have not progressed as per schedule.
Modi took over as the Gujarat chief minister in 2001.
Seventy-five percent of the canal network of Sardar Sarovar Project still remains to be completed by the state government, which is an impediment in taking water of big dam constructed on Narmada river to the parched lands of state, as per the data presented in the state assembly.
