A severe crisis of water has thrown life out of whack in the Anandpuri Chowk area in the city. From students to workers to homemakers, every day is a fresh struggle for water for the roughly 7,000 people who live in the area, which is part of ward number 26 of the municipality.

Chhotu Kumar, a BCom part II student of Yogda College, has not been attending classes for the last 20 days. “Paani dhundne mein vyast rahta hun (I remain busy fetching water),” said the 20-year-old, who lives in a joint family with 19 members.

Mantu Yadav, another resident, has not been able to go to office for two days. “I remain busy arranging for water. I don’t know what to do as the taps have gone dry. My children are small and my wife is ill,” said 45-year-old Yadav, who works in a courier office on Main Road.

Water tankers do the rounds of the locality every alternate day but that is not enough. The civic body supplies the water, and voluntary organisations provide the tankers. A tanker of the Yogda Satsang Math carrying 3,000 litres arrived at the locality on Monday, bringing temporary relief to the residents. Buckets were already lined up before the tanker arrived.

“Hamara jeena mushkil ho gaya hai. Itna kam paani mein ghar kaise chalaye (It has become impossible to live here. How can we meet our daily needs with so little water),” said Sunita Prajapati, a homemaker.

Most residents are buying drinking water by shelling out Rs 10 for a 20-litre jar, that too by walking half-a-kilometre to the spot where it is sold.

Suresh Rai, a social worker, said the underground water table has plummeted so much that one has to dig to a depth of around 1,000 feet to strike water.

“Residents have done 250-300 feet deep-boring at their homes. This is proving to be useless,” he added.

Ward 26 councillor Arun Kumar Jha admitted that there was a water crisis at Anandpuri, but blamed it on cattle.

“Anandpuri is a khatal (cowshed) locality and most of the residents own 20 cows each. They use part of the water to bathe the animals, so their demand is high. We can arrange water for humans but what can be done if people use it for bathing animals,” he said.

The Ranchi Municipal Corporation, he said, was trying its best by arranging water supply by two tankers every alternate day.