With poor storage in Athoor reservoir and no other tangible scheme to draw and distribute potable water, the weekly grievance day meeting at the Collectorate here on Monday was awash with water woes.
A large number of women, children and old people from Pothinayakanpatti near Kannivadi in Reddiyarchathiram union came to the Collectorate demanding potable water.
Village president C. Annamalai said there were 17 borewells for the 1,000 families residing in the village.
But for two, others had gone dry, putting people to much hardship.
Petitions were given to the panchayat wing at the Collectorate, Block Development Officer and Village Administrative Officers, but no action was taken to mitigate their sufferings.
Women had to walk two to three km to fetch drinking water.
Of late, villagers in Kannivadi were hesitant to give water to them, Mr. Annamalai said and urged the Collector to find an alternative and provide them uninterrupted drinking water supply.
In other places People from villages around Vedasandur and Batlagundu alleged that some individuals had sunk deep borewells on private lands and were selling water to commercial undertakings through tankers.
Though the land owners claimed they had the right to do business, drawing a huge quantity of water will exhaust the underground water in the whole area.
Action must be taken to close down such borewells, they said.