for Gujarat's earthquake victims the future is parched. Amid the ruins of the state government's tall claims of putting in place a rehabilitation package, the state government has totally forgotten about the water storage facilities badly damaged by the earthquake. The result: Saurashtra and Kachhch will face a storage of water for irrigation and drinking purposes.

"Even if we get a normal monsoon, we will not have sufficient storage of rainwater,' says Nafisa Barot, a member of Citizens' Initiative, a federation of some 200 non-governmental organisations ( ngo s) working for earthquake rehabilitation programme. Around 70 per cent of the surface water structures have been badly damaged in this area.

After five months of the tragedy, the Keshubhai Patel government has just limited its focus to immediate relief operation. Beyond that nothing has been done. "Immediate relief has become a long-term preoccupation of the government,' says a senior official of the state irrigation department who claims that in at least five cabinet meetings the impact of the damages to the water storage facilities have been debated to be given the least priority.

In fact, the state government doesn't have details of damages to surface water structures and groundwater aquifers. Though reports have been pouring in about the same. A recent report of the Gujarat Ecology Commission, Vadodara