Thane, where water is a luxury

Water the elixir of life needs to be preserved and conserved Thatrsquos an indisputable fact But government authorities appear to be carrying out this conservation keeping thousands perennially parched So while a person living in Mumbai gets about 45 litres of water a day a study in stark contrast is the fate of Nashera in Mokhada taluka Thane This little village of 1300 inhabitants got its first lot of 4000 litres of water by a tanker on Wednesday after a wait of over a month That translates into about 3 litres for each villager in 30 days Interestingly the Vaitarna lake one of the main sources of water supply to Mumbai is merely a few kilometres from this village But authorities have done nothing to cover the dry spell of the denizens PicAtul Kamble Whorsquoll plug the leak According to a recent survey done by BMCrsquos rainwater harvesting cell the corporation supplies 3300 million litres of water every day of which 20 per cent 660 MLD go to waste owing to leakage and pilferage apart from household wastage While in a few hundred kilometres of Thanersquos rural areas over 38 tribal villages are struggling to get even two litres of water per head per day Manglu Hadunga 31 sarpanch of Nashera village told MiD DAY they have been facing water problems for decades Every summer their ponds wells and even lakes dry up and they have to face severe water scarcity The villagers walk four to five kilometres daily to a drain to fetch a few litres of water for drinking and cooking The journey to and fro also involving long queues takes about five hours The inhabitants do not bathe daily and washing clothes is a luxury they can afford only once in 10 days The womenfolk have to trek 7 to 8 kilometres for their morning ablutions Though farming is the basic occupation here most of the villagers are unemployed and have no source of livelihood after the monsoons Whatever they cultivate rice urad and toor dals etc is used for selfconsumption rather than selling in open markets Taking pot luck Residents of Nashera including kids collecting water from the village well which was temporarily filled up by a water tanker PicsAtul Kamble Glass utterly empty Manglu added ldquoA month ago we informed local authorities including the block development officer BDO about the drought condition in our village and requested them to send water tankers daily They merely said that a tanker would be sent once a tender is floated and finalisedrdquou00a0 ldquoWe are forced to drink unhealthy muddy water from the drain we have no other source of potable water The rainwater stored in wells and ponds gets dried up by November end Though we manage to cope with the scarcity in winter the situation becomes unbearable during summer when we have to struggle for every single dropletrdquo said Vanita Salve a local resident The well is the only source of water for these villagers and is filled by a tanker once a month PicsAtul Kamble According to Manglu hundreds of villagers stormed the well on the outskirts of the village since 9 am on Wednesday after they were informed that the water tanker was expected by afternoon Armed with cans and vessels even schoolchildren were seen queuing up At around 1 pm the tanker with approximately 4000 litres arrived and emptied the water into the well The villagers did not waste even a second and started collecting the muddy water from the well by any means possible ldquoI wanted to take water for my family and was waiting here for over three hours I finally managed to get just a small bowlfulrdquo said Valu a young boy from the village In sympathy Minister of state for tribal development Rajendra Gavit handing over a cheque to the grieving family of Parvati Jadhav who lost her life over water recently Circumstances are no different in other neighbouring villages of Mokhada Vikramgad and Jawhar talukas Santosh Gawli grampanchayat member of Dolara village said ldquoSince the death of Parvati Jadhav the local administration has started sending water tankers twice a day approximately 10000 litres as compared to 4000 litres earlier These are temporary measures and a permanent solution is the need of the hour The local borewell lies broken for the last eight years and the local body has not even bothered to spend a few thousand rupees to fix it We are told that crores of rupees are being spent for tribal welfare but at ground level no welfare can be seen We are deprived of even basic living needsrdquo Parvati Ramu Jadhav 41 a mother of five had left her house as usual to fetch water ndashDolara village is facing scarcity of water since March 2012 As usual a tanker loaded with 4000 litres came to the village after four days around 930 am Parvati was waiting for it like hundreds of other villagers since early morning There was a lot of commotion at the well and people were pushing each other Around 1030 am she managed to get two pots of water and brought it to her house A few minutes later she left to get more but by then the tanker had gone Parvati who had been walking under the scorching sun for hours suddenly felt uneasy and collapsed Lifersquos cheap here According to Pundalik a relative who was with her ldquoI carried her home She was unconscious so I took her to a local doctor who said her condition was serious and shifted her to a private hospital in Nashik She was admitted in the ICU for a day and on April 21 she was declared dead We sold our cattle and borrowed money from our relatives to pay the hospital fee of Rs 45000rdquo The local administrationrsquos project office provided 1 quintal of rice and Rs 15000 to the family On Wednesday afternoon residents of Dolara village including women expressed their grievances about the water situation to Rajendra Gavit state tribal development minister The minister met the five children of Parvati Jadhav and offered them a cheque of Rs 1 lakh on behalf of the state government and Rs 50000 in cash as a personal gesture Gavit also assured villagers that everything possible would be done to resolve the situation However locals were keen that he makes good his promises The minister assured them of sorting out the issue by June Speaking to MiD DAY Gavit said ldquoI have asked the water department and local bodies to submit a detailed feasibility report to me within two days The first priority will be to check if the longpending demand of the villagers to get water from Khoch dam is practicable or not Secondly emphasis is also on constructing water tanks for rainwater harvesting in droughtaffected villages in Jawhar Mokhada and Vikramgad talukas It is unfortunate that a tribal woman had to lose her life for water I have met the grieving family and have provided financial aidrdquo Dry run Social activist Ravindra Shivade from Jawhar village displayed little faith ldquoThese are blank promises the corruption nexus between local authorities and contractors should be first stopped In the name of tribal development crores of rupees are being pocketed and no one is held accountable for the clandestine behaviour These villagers have been crying themselves hoarse for water for decades but no one has heard their wails so farrdquo Vasai MLA and chief of Shramajivi Sanghatana Vivek Pandit wrote a letter to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavhan on April 23 highlighting the circumstances in which Parvati lost her life Also he drew the CMrsquos attention to the fact that the tender rates for water tankers ndash Rs 1400 per day ndash has not been revised since 2009 and that the same be increased by 30 per cent Tanker operators were finding it difficult to render their services at such a low price as fuel costs and other overhead expenses have gone up he said Pandit also suggested that the power for planning and execution of water supply to tribal areas which is presently with the collector be given to the additional collector Jawhar Did you know gtgt Mumbai has a population of 125 crore gtgt Every household throws away at least two buckets 40 l of lsquostalersquo water every day gtgt Every person who brushes his teeth for five minutes before an open tap wastes 60 litres of water gtgt About 106 litres go down the drain when a person shaves in front of an open tap gtgt There are as many as 20 lakh automobiles in the city Whenever a person washes his vehicle with water from a hose he consumes about 120 litres Officials speak KS Lokhande deputy engineer water supply Mokhada taluka ldquoWe have already got Rs 38 lakh sanctioned for construction of a water tank and laying pipelines at Nashera village Since the village is on a hill we are hopeful the water crisis would be sorted out soon Work would commence by the second week of May Water tankers have been sanctioned for other villages which are facing water scarcityrdquo SM Kurtkoti subdivisional officer Jawhar ldquoOut of 59 villages and 220 padas in the four talukas Jawhar Mokhada Vikramgad and Wada 38 villages are still facing water scarcity We have a proposal and have sanction to construct overhead water tanks for rainwater harvesting from this year in such villages once the monsoon is over The tanks will be locked and the water will be used only during the summers Also the priority is on a feasibility study of getting water to the tribal villages from Khoch damrdquo 30000 litres wasted in Mulund In less than 24 hours over 30000 litres of water were wasted in Mulund E between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday According to BMCrsquos hydraulic department staffers who were at the spot they had opened the air valve from the main water pipelines which pass water up to Malabar Hill as a routine practice ldquoThe air valve has to be opened to avoid any pipe burst after carrying out repair workrdquo explained a technician However when asked if the water could have been stored in water tanks instead of wasting it a representative admitted that the same is possible but it is time consuming and since they have to finish the repair work within a stipulated time frame the idea of getting the water stored in tanks is not feasibleu00a0