Kharkai's low water level and accumulated filth have released a flood of worry for thousands of Chhath devotees from large parts of Jamshedpur and Adityapur, but Seraikela-Kharsawan administration, faced with people's requests to approach a nearby Odisha dam for festive reprieve, is in a fix.
Concerned over the almost bone-dry Kharkai, with marshy filth especially near the earmarked Chhath ghats, several Adityapur residents via local NGO Jan Kalyan Morcha approached Seraikela-Kharsawan DC Chandrashekhar on Friday to ask authorities of nearby Bankbal Dam in Odisha to release a gush of water to the river.
Bankbal, a dam on the Kharkai, falls in the nearby Mayurbhanj district in the neighbouring state.
Residents have urged that if the district administration requested their Mayurbhanj counterparts to release water from Bankbal Dam, Kharkai's filth would be washed away, enabling devotees to celebrate Chhath, which involves making offerings to the sun god standing in water for long periods of time.
But, Seraikela-Kharsawan DC Chandrashekhar, who confirmed Jan Kalyan Morcha president Om Prakash approached him with the request for water from Bankbal, also said they were in two minds.
"Keeping in view the paucity of water in reservoirs across the region we are in a fix whether to give Odisha authorities such a proposal at the moment," he said. "We are considering all angles."
"Like any and every dam in Jharkhand, human consumption is also Odisha's first priority as far as its reservoir water is concerned," DC Chandrashekhar said.
He added that rainfall in recent months had been low across the region, which meant Bankbal Dam, like any other dam here in the state, lacked adequate stock.
But, on the other hand, the administration also has to consider mass sentiments.
"Garbage is visible on the surface of Kharkai. Kharkai water is unclean and in too little quantity for people to perform Chhath rituals. In such a situation, only one way out is requesting the Odisha government to release water from the adjoining Bankbal dam so that both problems are sorted out," said Om Prakash while talking to The Telegraph .
Though affluent people in Jamshedpur and Adityapur construct their own ponds, makeshift or otherwise, for Chhath worship, lakhs of devotees perform the rituals along Subernarekha and Kharkai rivers in East Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan every year.
But, due to paucity of rain, the rivers, especially the Kharkai, have too little and too filthy water.
Though Adityapur Municipal Corporation has taken steps to clean ghats in Adityapur and Gamharia in Seraikela-Kharsawan for the upcoming festivities, the civic body lacks equipment to dredge the filthy river.
Asked whether it would be feasible to request Bankbal authorities, executive engineer Chandil Dam V.K. Burnwal said Odisha would need to release water for least 12 hours at the rate of 100 cubic metre per second.
"Getting filth washed out by a gush of water from upstream is a good idea, but keeping in view the low water level at Bankbal Dam, it seems next to impossible at this point," Burnwal said.
He said they were aware that Subernarekha's water level was also poor, but they would not be able to release water from Chandil dam to help out due to its very low water level of 180.45 metres.
