Anger erupts 120 kilometers from Mumbai: Water becomes scarce

SHAHAPUR: Voters in the three drought-stricken villages of Shahapur taluka in Thane district, Fugale, Aghanwadi, and Varaswadi, have chosen not to participate in the next state assembly and Lok Sabha elections. They do this as a kind of protest against the government, which for the last 50 years has ignored the everyday efforts of around 1200 people to get clean drinking water.

On December 22, residents of Fugale, a hamlet 120 kilometers from Bombay, demonstrated their dissatisfaction by barring panchayat officials from visiting their community. As part of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, the officials were in this area to spread awareness of the numerous government initiatives aimed at helping the people of rural India.

The sarpanch of Fugale, Jeeva Bhala, said, “We will not allow any election campaign in our villages until the government resolves the water crisis in our villages.” “We can no longer live off of the false promises made by politicians.”

Due to insufficient rainfall in the state this year, the four wells’ water supplies have been depleted; according to the locals, two of the wells have entirely dried up and the other two have just enough water to survive 15 days. As a result, their predicament has become worse.

According to Bhala, the government promises the villagers that tap water will be available shortly following each year’s drought. It has been discussed with us for the last 20 years. With every year that goes by, it becomes a faraway fantasy. Our battle to get clean drinking water has become tougher,” he said.

There is just residual reserve in two out of the four wells, which should last us for two weeks at most. Every year between March and April, we deal with a severe water issue, but this year we are dealing with it much earlier. Until the next monsoon, we don’t know how we’re going to live,” Bhala said.

stroll in the forest

Since the water crisis started early this year, the villagers are on their own to make arrangements for potable water to suit their daily requirements. Normally, local officials would deliver tanker water to the villages during the summer months when the situation is severe.

Shammibai Bhala, 30, and her husband Nivruti, 35, head to a neighboring forest, one kilometer distant from the hamlet, where the people have discovered a water source after the family eats supper and finishes cleaning up the home.

A household of fifteen needs over twenty-five liters of water a day. Our residence is closed by 8 p.m. Every villager congregates at night in a cleft between the rocks. Late at night, they line up and wait for the water to start flowing, and this process continues until midday the next day, according to Shammibai. The source of the water that fills this nook each night is unknown.

This writer went on a nighttime stroll with Shammibai and the other locals on Thursday. With the help of a torchlight, the villagers made their way down a dim and winding trail through the bush. When it was their time at midday, Shammibai and her husband were able to fill the three metal pots they had been waiting in line for all night. Filling the pots took them two hours.

Since December 1st, this has been our daily schedule. We’ve only slept for an hour or two, at most. Here in the forest, we sleep as we wait for our turn. I go to the creek three times a day at least to gather 25 liters of water for cooking and drinking,” Shammibai said.

Ranjana Pokada, 25, who was standing next to Shammibai, expressed gratitude to her family of 20 for having five women in their family who labor at the stream in turns to fill it with water. Since most men have to get up early to work on their farms, they avoid this pattern.

As I’m almost done filling the two pots, my sister-in-law and a few other family ladies show up there. It takes an hour or more to get the necessary fill. We worry that this creek may dry up soon as well, forcing us to look for another one that may be many kilometers distant. Who knows? To acquire water, we could even have to go for two hours and traverse a mountain to get to Bhavani Dam, an earth-fill dam on the Bham River near Igatpuri,” she remarked.

The locals have ceased taking regular showers and now only sometimes wash their clothing in a nearby lake as a means of coping with the current situation. “It’s not drinkable water from the lake. We wash livestock and clothing in it. On our trip to the fields, we only take a bath when we come across a creek, 30-year-old Mirabai Telang remarked.

Health warning

Given that a large number of people have recently been victims of stomach illnesses, the current system of going through the forest to get drinking water may not be the greatest choice after all.

“Almost every other individual in the community has jaundice or a stomach illness. Chula is what we cook with. We do not have enough time to boil the water after the lengthy trek and wait. All we do is pull it through a cloth. Suman Bhala, 44, who is recovering from an illness and fever, said, “Doctors have indicated that this is the cause of our stomach infections.”

According to the villagers, two water tankers were delivered by Union Minister of State Panchayati Raj Kapil Patil during the first week of December. However, that did not satisfy their demands.

Ashok Shingare, the Thane collector, said, “We are aware of the drinking water scarcity by three villages in that area in Shahapur,” upon learning of the conditions in the villages. I’ve given my officers the order to check the hamlet for a source of drinkable water first. The only choice left is to begin providing water tanker services to the region if that cannot be located.

It was rare for the shortage to start so early, Shingare said. Water tankers are often taken out of service by the end of January. This predicament may have resulted from the south west monsoon withdrawing earlier than normal this year. We will take the required actions to guarantee that communities have access to drinkable water while keeping an eye on the situation.