Hari Kishan Parikh wants to sell his house. So does Manju Sharma and several others. Posters announcing the same dot the streets of this Rajasthan town. The reason: an acute water crisis.
Sambhar town, famous for its salt pans and migratory birds that visit it each year, faces a huge water crisis that is forcing its residents to move out.
"All the houses on this street are up for sale due to a severe water crisis," reads a poster strung across one of the streets.
Another plastered at Hari Kishan Parikh's house reads: "This house is for sale. There is a severe water crisis and we are compelled to sell our home and move out."
Sambhar town is barely 70 kilometres from the capital city of Jaipur.
In wards 22 and 23, around the Charbhuja Mandir, posters like these can be seen on several homes, some of these houses have been around for over 200 years.
"For the past 7 years now, we have no dedicated water tank that will supply water to our homes via pipelines. About 200 people from this ward have got together and said it's better to migrate from here. If there will be no water, then what is the point of living here. The water works department is not worried, we have put up posters on every street and these have come up at 150 homes. In the last two years, people have been moving out but this water crisis has come to a head this summer," said Gautam Singhania, local BJP councillor from the area who represents ward 23.
There were about 3,500 people here, but that number now stands at 1700, said the councillor, adding that even those left behind plan to move out soon.
"We will move out of this area to a rented home on the outskirts of the town. We have moved half our belongings and are moving the other half out now," said Manju Sharma, a resident.
Vidhyadhar Chaudhary, Congress MLA from the area, said the problem is that his constituency is getting only half the water allotted to them from the Bisalpur dam.
Of the 18 Megaliters per Day (MLD) water due to Phulera only 9 MLD is being supplied which has led to a drinking water crisis. The crisis is not limited to Sambhar, it has spread to Naraina, Phulera Sambhar, Renwaal and 163 rural villages where people have to fall back on water tanks to meet their daily needs. Similar poster are coming up there as well.
The MLA said he had raised this issue in the Vidhan Sabha on January 31st.
"In a written reply, Minister Kanhiya Lal Chaudhry agreed that only half the water due to us is being supplied but it's due to old pipelines that cannot take the pressure. The pipeline to carry the Bisalpur water will have to be relaid and the minister said in the house to my question that the work to lay a tranmission pipeline from Surajpura to Sambhar is underway and it will only be completed by 15.06.2025, after which the assembly constituency of Phulera will get water once in 24 hours or once in 48 hours," said Vidhyadhar Chaudhary.
