Mumbai: A fight for survival

Umera Sheikh with her daughter Amrin (l) and Anam, Sheikh felt that she realised that the water supply had been dwindling in neighbourhood and she better do something about it. Pics/Shadab Khan

For the last three months, the sole source of water for the cramped Dargah Galli in Dockyard Road was a fire hydrant. Officially, the area has had water taps in its hutments since January 2023. But in October last year, despite having documents like electricity bills, Aadhar cards, ration cards and past water supply bills, the residents were getting little or no water in their houses.

While everyone complained, lined up at the fire hydrant or dipped into their savings to buy water from tankers, two women decided it was time to do something. Umera Sheikh, a mother of three, met sister Florina Joseph of the Vimla Vikas Kendra last December to discuss what could be done. The VVK is the empowerment wing of the local Our Lady of Rosary School, where Sheikh's eldest daughter, Amrin, studies currently in Class VI.

"They (the BMC) asked us to get all our documents first. They thought we were lying about having a water connection in the first place," Sheikh tells us as she leads us through the bylanes of her area. We pass the famous Dargah of Hazrat Jalal Shah, which is said to drive away evil spirts from the bodies of possessed people. Sheikh offers to take us inside to show us first hand, and chuckles as we politely decline.

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Kabrunisa Mohammed Khan says the next battle for the area will be not allowing the BMC to demolish homes and shows us proof of residents in the form of ration card, Aadhar card and even their reciept of being included in the 2011 census

As we walk, we see that water taps are barely half a foot off the ground. "There was hardly any pressure in the taps, so we started cutting the pipes to lower the taps," Sheikh tells us, pointing to the tap outside her own hutment. There is barely enough space to fit the mouth of a pipe over the tap, which is then run into a bucket. Besides, not all houses have taps. Kabrunisa Mohammed Khan is one of the unlucky ones. She buys 35-litre cans of water at Rs 5 per can from those controlling the fire hydrant; she needs six cans every month so that her entire family of six can take care of basic sanitation.

"The BMC was asking for Rs 15,000 to run supply water to our house. Where were we going to get that kind of money?" she asks, having settled for the lesser expense of Rs 900 per month for water from the hydrant. Sheikh and Joseph started making trips to the E-Ward office from November to January and following up constantly with officials. The back and forth was largely because the BMC officials did not have an answer to the dwindling supply for the water. Finally, by early February, water supply was restored to the earlier twice a day.

The reason behind the sudden suspension of the supply, they were told, was a leak in the water supply pipe near Cotton Green. "They didn't even know about the leak till we started asking them." says Joseph. The community has been living under the threat of eviction since February from the land, which belongs to the Mumbai Port Trust. Despite having lived here for the last 30 years, with census receipts to show for it, the 300-off residents were served eviction notices and asked to vacate the area on February 28. Sheikh, who can read and write Urdu, is now learning Hindi and English at the VVK.