Residents across various villages in Assam’s Karimganj district cannot remember a time when they drank clean, fresh water. For the longest time, villagers from Oilamcherra, Ping Cherra, Gopalpur, Belala and Mirjanagar, to name a few villages, have been dependent on rivulets and puddles of muddy water for daily use.

Inevitably, generations of families across these villages have been affected by water-borne diseases like dysentery, cholera, diarrhoea, and more. There are very few villagers who have hope that the situation will change sometime in the near future.

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Farook Ahmed, 37, is a resident of Taltola, a village around 70 km from one of Assam’s bigger towns, Silchar. Taltola comprises about 8,000 – 9,000 residents, who barely make a living as farmers and daily wage workers. Ahmed says, “We don’t have any option but to collect water from ponds, puddles or tube wells in neighbouring villages”.