Indain Express 17.12.2009
Beneath the floor, source of plenty to drink & sell
Ram Jaiswal’s 10×10 room houses not only his ironing shop but also a well. Ten feet deep and covered by a plastic drum, it is his answer to the water crisis plaguing the city. “Water would never have reached us otherwise,” says Jaiswal.
The area, Ekta Nagar slums in Mandala, Mankhurd, is near the creek, and a high-suction motor recharges the groundwater in an hour. The brackish water sustains not only his family of five but also their neighbours, Shehnaz Sheikh’s family of six.
“You needn’t be a scientist to find water here. Dig deep anywhere and you will find it. In 10 minutes at least five cans are filled,” says Jaiswal’s wife Neelam
The water shortage has made entrepreneurs out of the slumdwellers of Mankhurd and Govandi. In the sprawling Ekta Nagar slums, one in every five houses has a well inside. Chinu and Ruby Chaurasia have a legal connection but have still dug a well indoors and sell water to neighbours at Rs 2 a can.
Known for its high slum population - almost 80 per cent of the total - and lowest on the Human Development Index, the Govandi-Mankhurd belt in the eastern suburbs is also notorious for illegal connections to the main pipeline and sale to settlers. A municipal crackdown (92 FIRs, 676 disconnections and confiscation of 291 pumps in three weeks) has not stopped people from innovating
Those who fail to innovate have to buy. The well in Rashida Khatoon’s small room yields gutter water, blackish, foamy and smelly, with cockroaches floating. On Sunday, the police confiscated a motor that would have sucked in fresh water. “Why is it illegal to have a machine on my legal connection. When we don’t get municipal water, how are my five kids supposed to wash and drink?”
“We will otherwise never get water even for drinking,” says Tasadukk Hussain who was detained Sunday for fixing the motor.
The only legal source is the BMC tanker that arrives about once in three days and supplies two cans of fresh water, supposed to be free. Some groups allegedly use political influence to buy the water tankers. “We are given coupons with which we get two cans. We pay Rs 2 to Rs 5 for one can,” said a slumdweller who did not say who gets the money.
Badruddin Sheikh, among the many who sell water in Shivaji Nagar, said unemployed youths go to Chembur and other far-off localities that get daily supply. “They fill water from legal connections and sell it where there is a shortage.”
A can, called fuga, with a capacity of 35 litres, is sold between Rs 15 and Rs 20. Before the crisis, the Fuga would cost Rs 2 to Rs 5. The BMC has ordered a police crackdown on fugawallas, whose equipment is confiscated and who are detained for a few hours.
Sheikh’s cousin Rehena Aziz has a legal connection and uses it to sell water. “We fix seven or more plastic pipes to the main line and route water to people’s houses.” The charge is Rs 300 a month.
Supply is so erratic here that people fill containers through pipelines that pass through gutters. “As long as we have some water, we don’t care where it comes from,” says Sushila Jaiswal.
According to rough BMC estimates, around 700 million litres of water is lost in a day to pilferage, illegal connections or leaks. Additional municipal commissioner (projects) Anil Diggikar said that after an FIR, if a person is still found to have an illegal connection and to be stealing water, he will be booked under the strict Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act.
