Barmer: Over 300 students at the government upper primary school in Tamlore village in Barmer will face the sweltering summer with temperatures touching 45-50 degree Celsius without sustainable water resources.
The school was scheduled to get running tap water connected with a water tank by April 2022 under the Jal Jeevan Mission. However, the project has yet to see the laying of the foundation stone of the tank.
“Nothing will change for students even this summer. The Union-state government’s flagship scheme JJM came as a ray of hope for our children who spend four to five hours in school without water. It is hard for the students that at this age they have to use toilets with no water or very little water in the drums. The school has earthen pots which are filled by locals and don’t last even half the school time,” said Hindu Singh Tamlore, Sarpanch of Tamlore village in Barmer.
This is not the lone village in the state. Lakhs of students will continue to face the acute shortage of water in sweltering summer as 28% of the government schools have yet to have a tap water connection.
The state ranked in the bottom three states in providing water to schools resulting in having the highest number of non-functioning toilets contributing to the dropout of girls. The report says that of 86,217 schools only 62,085 schools have running tap water connections. Next to Rajasthan is Odisha with and Meghalaya with 68% and 56%, respectively.
The union ministry in December 2022 had asked all the states to ensure hand washing facilities in every school and functional toilets as part of the hygiene programme.
Sources said that if an independent audit of schools is done every school will have a hand wash facility.
“The state is struggling to provide water connection in schools located in western Rajasthan due to scarce sustainable water resources. Building a sustainable water resource makes it an expensive affair. Some of the regions in the state have recorded the highest per connection price as the pipeline runs in kilometres and transporting water makes the cost high,” said a government official.
