A Public Health official, on condition of anonymity, said no official had bothered to order an inquiry and the story of the broken dam was permanently buried inside government files. “The matter was hushed up,” he alleged.

Krondewal and nearby villages are dependant on the erratic rainfall. The average annual rainfall in the area varies from 800 mm to 1,250 mm, 80 per cent of which occurs during two months of the monsoon season. With very few water bodies to trap this rain, about 30 to 50 per cent go waste. Canal irrigation is not possible because of the undulating topography and because the ground water is too deep to exploit.

The dam—12 meters high and 110 metres long—had a catchment area of 73.19 hectares and would have stored 2,43,200 gallons of water.

Though Public Health Minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia had assured an inquiry into the matter, no action has been taken till now. Which isn’t surprising—till very recently, nobody in the government, which is just 20 kilometers away from the village, had heard of the washed away dam and the plight of the villagers.