Lack of clean drinking water adds to Palghar’s pandemic woes

Every morning tribal women and children in Palghar district have the task of fetching water from nearby wells With no water connection in villages this is their sole source of water for drinking cooking and cleaning Often the water is contaminated or muddy and gives people fever and cough Amid the Covid19 pandemic having these symptoms leads to particularly high levels of stress and hesitancy in seeking medical helpThis even as the district has several dams and adequate rainfall Activists on the ground say that lsquoa lack of strong political willrsquo is making tribals suffer Pandurang Warghade from Chaas village in Mokhada taluka claimed that his wife Pushpa died after drinking contaminated water ldquoWhen I rushed her to a private hospital doctors conducted a Covid19 test as she had fever and coughing I rushed her to a hospital in Dahisar as I could not get an oxygen bed in Boisar She died on May 12rdquo Warghade told middayAlso Read lsquoAct before the third Covid19 wave wipes out our next generation kidsrsquoLata Jadhav who resides in Thane and was visiting her maternal family in Chaas village said ldquoI grew up here but there used to be no water shortage back then We used to easily get water from nearby water bodies But today they have gone dryrdquoldquoThe water supplied to this village through tankers is not good It gives people fever and cough Unfortunately Covid19 has the same symptoms With there being a perception that going to hospitals with Covid19 means people die tribals are not reporting their symptoms There are many families in the village where people start sneezing and then fall sick This could either be Covid19 or infection from the drinking water Therersquod be no way to knowrdquo Jadhav saidDry wells riversDuring visits to tribal villages in Jawhar and Mokhada talukas midday saw several women and children flocking to mostly dry wells and filling containers with water which they carried back to their villages several kilometres awayWomen and their daughters wash clothes at a well in Chaas villageA large well in Bedukpada village Mokhada has gone dry but tribals still try to take whatever muddy water is left in it ldquoThe road leading to the well from our village is a kucha road It often leads to injuries on our legs and spillagerdquo said Sunita Ashok Valvi To avoid the kucha road villagers sometimes go to a nearby seasonal river where they dig the ground to create water pockets ldquoThe nearby well has gone dry If we dig the bed and the land near the seasonal river we get some waterrdquo Valvi addedWith no water connection in tribal belts of Maharashtrarsquos Palghar nearby wells is the sole source of water for villagers for drinking cooking and cleaning Often the water is contaminated or muddy and gives people fever and cough Video courtesy DiwakarSharmaa pictwittercomfu0ng0kreDmdash Mid Day mid_day May 19 2021A group of tribal women and their adolescent daughters at a well in Kaprichapada village told midday that the well is refilled by one tanker every day ldquoThe depth of the well is not adequate If it were to be dug further a water source would be found and we wonrsquot have to ask the gram panchayat for tankers But the landowner says his farm will be affected if the well is dug too deeprdquo said Sony Khutade 45 who was at the well with her daughter Pinki 28ldquoWe come here every day to fetch water We have to climb an incline to reach our village on the other side It is difficult to cross the uneven land with filled containers on our headrdquo said Bharti Ganpat KordaAn empty well in Kondachapada villageNo water for handwashingSince none of the tribals knows about Covid19 precautions they do not follow the practice of regularly washing hands ldquoWe take water only for cooking and cleaning utensilsrdquoA large well in Kondachapada village in Jawhar had only small pockets of water Pramila Ganpat Vele 34 was using a bucket tied to a rope to get the muddy waterldquoOnce the water is stable in a container the dust gathers at the bottom and we can drink the water The remaining muddy water can be used for cattle or to clean utensilsrdquo Vele saidVele added ldquoWhen water is filled in this well villagers from Kaptichapada and Nandanmal come before dawn to fetch itrdquoWomen and girls walk several kilometres daily often on uneven terrains to fetch water from wells and riversSeveral dams yet no waterA source from the Water Conservation department of the state government told midday that despite having several dams in the region tribals are deprived of clean waterldquoThere is Sayde dam in Mokhada taluka with 55 million cubic feet capacity Kalshetipada dam is in Jawhar with a 60 million cubic feet capacity and there is Asnas dam in Wada taluka with a storage capacity of 53 million cubic feetrdquo said the officerldquoThe water stored in these dams is used especially for irrigation But if the environmental engineering department of Zila Parishad were to seek water to distribute in tribal villages for drinking purpose we could provide it to them But to the best of my knowledge no such communication has taken placerdquo the officer saidThe heavily forested Palghar district also receives considerably high rainfall every year and the water collected in lakes is supplied to MumbaiVivek Pandit chairman of a panel appointed by the central government to check the status of tribal schemes told midday that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC is yet to pay over Rs 300 crore of water cess to Palghar and Thane districts The two together have Bhatsa Tansa Upper Vaitarna and Lower Vaitarna lakes ldquoThis water cess is pending for years If the state government wants the pending water cess can be recovered from the BMC and the amount can be used to create water connections in each tribal villagerdquo Pandit saidldquoThe state government is focussing more on developing urban cities by making flyovers highways etc but basic infrastructure in rural areas has been ignoredrdquo said PanditldquoA big pipeline has been installed to supply water from Palghar district to Mumbai But to get the same facility for tribals the state government says it has no moneyrdquo Pandit saidSunita Ashok ValvildquoAn IITBombay study conducted in Jawhar and Mokhada talukas in 201617 had suggested spending around R20 crore in the talukas to get rid of the water crisis but nothing has been done till daterdquo Pandit addedldquoBecause of the water crisis and shortage of other resources locals are migrating to urban areas for livelihoodrdquo Pandit saidldquoI had suggested the previous state government led by Devendra Fadnavis to get a loan of Rs 5000 crore to improve the water holding capacity in the hilly regions of Jawhar Mokhada and other talukas where mediumsized dams can be made Fadnavis had principally okayed the suggestion but it was stonewalled after the new government came inrdquo Pandit saidCalls and messages to CEO Zila Parishad Siddharam Salimath and Tribal Development Commissioner Hiralal Sonawane went unanswered till the time of going to press