Bundelkhand last made news over Rahul Gandhi’s midnight visit to a Dalit home, provoking Chief Minister Mayawati and the BJP to question his motives. But as Lucknow and Delhi debate Dalit politics, Bundelkhand is seeing clashes and thefts over something far more basic: water.

On Saturday morning, 15-year-old Daya Shankar and three fellow villagers were arrested for allegedly trying to capture a tanker delivering drinking water to their village Mudhari in Mahoba district. Besides other charges, all four were booked under Section 353 of the IPC for obstructing government work. Three armed policemen are since on duty to ensure that tanker water is distributed fairly in Mudhari.

However, as villagers say, a tanker is a drop in the drought for their cattle and them. While Mudhari has 41 handpumps, only 10 are functional. Each time they are used for more than half an hour, the supply dries up as the water level falls too low.

Mudhari is not an exception. The race for water begins at 4 am in Bundelkhand as villagers try to be the first to reach the few functional handpumps. The tankers supplied by the administration reach around 8 am. Women and girls spend almost the entire day stocking up water.

Mahoba District Magistrate Vijay Vishwas Pant admits that while 2,000 handpumps have been either freshly dug or re-bored in the region, “the failure rate is about 30 per cent”. In neighbouring Chitrakoot, DM Anamika Singh says the administration has identified 50 dry wells and will spend Rs 50,000 on each to replenish them.

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