Child Dies Fetching Water In Drought-Hit Beed
BEED, MAHARASHTRA: An 11-year-old boy died after he slipped and fell into a well while getting water in a drought-hit region in Maharashtra.Sachin Gopinath Kedar was just half km from his home.
This is the second child death this week in Beed, one of the seven districts in Marathwada devastated by drought for three years in a row.On Sunday, 12-year-old Yogita Desai died of a heart attack and dehydration after making five trips to a water pump near her home. She had been unwell for days with dysentery but was forced to go out at 42 degrees to get water from an almost dry pump.
A severe water shortage in the Marathwada region has meant that every member of the family, even children, are forced to make multiple trips to the nearest water source in the blazing heat.Eight of the region’s 11 major dams are at dead storage level, which means water has to be taken out and cannot flow.
Across India, a heat wave has killed over 110 people so far. 45 people have died in Odisha; another 35 in Telangana in the last three weeks.
