Considering the intense heatwave conditions for more than a week and reports of drinking water crisis trickling in from different parts of the State, the Government has instructed district collectors to deploy special teams for restoration of defunct tube-wells and rural pipe water systems. According to district reports, 678 mobile vans have been deployed for verification of spot sources and repair of defunct tube-wells and pipe water supply systems. Although official sources claimed that 1.81 lakh out of 3.23 lakh tube-wells spread over 1,41,438 habitations in 6,236 gram panchayats have been repaired, unofficial sources said a large number of tube-wells are either lying defunct or not yielding water due to drop in the groundwater level. Official sources further maintained that 6,468 out of 7,632 rural water supply systems have been verified and minor repair works taken up in 4,756 cases as on Monday. The Government is reported to have deployed 475 tankers in water scarcity pockets of rural areas and 370 tankers in urban areas to meet the drinking water needs. However, the number of water tankers deployed in rural areas is stated to be inadequate. While natural sources of water have dried up at many places, the depleting groundwater has made the problem more acute. Drinking water crisis prevails in Balangir district with Patnagarh block being the most affected. To overcome the situation, the State Government has directed the district collectors to engage more self-employed mechanics (SEMs) with additional honorarium of ` 500 per month in view of the case pending in the Orissa High Court. The pump operators are demanding that they be treated as skilled worker. The Government directive notwithstanding, repair work is often delayed for various reasons such as non-availability of spares, non-payment of dues in time and non-cooperation of people and gram panchayats. In a number of areas, tube-wells stop yielding water during summer due to a seasonal problem known in departmental parlance as draw down. The problem occurs when the water table falls below the level to which the tube well has been dug. Sometimes, this problem is attributed to the fact that the requisite length of pipes has not been used. Meanwhile, the newly recruited junior engineers have joined in 229 blocks and completed their training to operate and maintain all drinking water sources and promote total sanitation in association with the gram panchayats, sources in the Rural Development Department said.