The destitute villages in the areas supplying the megacity with water are running out of water far from the sparkling high-rises of Mumbai, the financial center of India. Experts fear this issue is a harbinger of worse things to come.
Sunita Pandurang Satgir told reporters, “The people in Mumbai drink our water, but no one there, including the government, pays attention to us or our demands.” She was wearing a hefty metal pot on her head that was full with rancid water.
With 1.4 billion inhabitants, the most populous country in the world, there is a growing demand but a declining supply due to climate change-related high heat and unpredictable rainfall.
Mumbai’s extensive infrastructure consists of reservoirs that are connected by pipelines and canals that carry water from 100 kilometers distant. According to experts, a lack of basic planning results in the network frequently being disconnected from hundreds of rural settlements in the area as well as other neighboring districts.
Rather, they depend on conventional wells.
However, few resources are not keeping up with demand, and crucial groundwater levels are declining.
“Collecting water is what our days and lives are all about—collecting it once, collecting it again, and again,” stated Satgir. “Every day, we make four to six rounds for water, leaving us with no time for anything else.”
Dry wells and heat waves
Droughts are becoming more severe and lasting longer as a result of climate change’s impact on weather patterns. Wells quickly dry up in the intense heat.
Satgir, 35, stated that she can spend up to six hours a day gathering water during the hottest part of the summer. This year, the temperature rose above a savage 45°C. The village then depends on a government tanker that delivers sporadic supply two or three times a week once the well runs dry.
It transports raw water from a river where livestock graze and people bathe. About 100 kilometers separate Satgir’s dusty village of Navinwadi from the bustling streets of Mumbai, which is close to the farming town of Shahapur.
Major reservoirs that provide Mumbai with about 60% of its water also originate from this region, according to local government officials.
Mumbai, home to an estimated 22 million people, is the second-biggest metropolis in India and is growing at a rapid pace. “Nothing has changed for us; all that water from around goes to the people in the big city,” stated Satgir. “That one is closely connected to all three of us,” she continued. It’s the only source we have.
Rupali Bhaskar Sadgir, 26, the deputy head of the hamlet, claimed that the water frequently made the locals unwell. However, that was their only choice. “We’ve been asking governments for years to make sure that we get the water that’s available at the dams,” the woman stated. However, things only seem to get worse.
Government representatives have repeatedly declared plans to solve the water crisis and insist they are committed to solving the issue, both at the state and federal levels in New Delhi.
However, the villagers claim that they have not yet arrived.
“Unreasonably high rates”
In a research released in July 2023, the government-run NITI Aayog public policy centre in India predicted a “steep fall of around 40pc in freshwater availability by 2030.” Additionally, it issued a warning about “degrading resource quality, depleting groundwater tables, and increasing water shortages.”
It continued, pointing out that groundwater resources comprise about 40% of all available water supplies and that they “are being depleted at unsustainable rates.”
According to Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, an advocacy group for water rights located in Delhi, this is a tale that is told all over India.
According to Thakkar, this is “typical of what keeps happening all over the country” and embodies all that is “wrong with the political economy of making dams in India.”
“Most projects end up serving only the distant urban areas and industries, even though they are planned and justified in the name of drought-prone regions and its people,” he said.
This month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took office for a third term, unveiled a centerpiece initiative to supply tapped water to every family in 2019. However, the villagers of Navinwadi are content to survive on the severely limited supplies.
Dozens of women and kids run out with buckets, pots, and pans as soon as the water tanker arrives. Daily laborer Santosh Trambakh Dhonner, 50, said he joined the scramble because he was unemployed that day. He declared, “More hands equals more water at home.”
The 25-year-old Ganesh Waghe claimed that despite complaints and protests, nothing was done. Waghe remarked, “We are not living with any great ambitions.” “Just a water dream the following morning.”
