In Thane’s Diva, residents battling water scarcity for past 12 summers

FOR 38-YEAR-OLD Nalini Bhoir, her morning routine has been the same for the last 10 summers.

A mother of three, she walks for over 5 km from her house at Nagwadi in Thane’s Diva to the main road and waits for water, along with scores of other women, some her neighbours.

While on certain days, the women wait for hours in vain for water, there are days when they are lucky enough to get some supply, though it is never enough.

The residents of Diva claim that they have not received enough water for the last 12 years. Vijay Bhoir (58), a social activist from Diva, said: “There are no internal water pipelines here. There is just a main supply line that comes from MIDC through Palava and other gated communities. Even overhead tanks here don’t have underground storage from where the water can be pumped up. There is absolutely no infrastructure, despite us paying all our taxes.”

The area, populated by mostly middle class and lower middle class families, is hardly 20 km from the TMC headquarters. “Some residents eventually manage to get a mini-tanker, which is shared by at least three to four families,” Bhoir said.

But the luxury of seeking a tanker every few days is not for everyone.

“We make hardly Rs 500 a day. How can we spend that on a tanker? The gated communities get water everyday, they are backed by influential builders,” said Kesar Singh, a construction worker. “Until a few years ago, we used to travel to Mumbra in trains to fetch water. But now, even Mumbra has no water,” he added.

When contacted, TMC officials claimed that the terrain and water scarcity have resulted in erratic supply.

“It is not that we are supplying more water to some areas and less in others. Water shortage is a real issue and we have already levied supply cuts. In Diva, because of the congested areas and the terrain, we faced the issue of weak water supply in the past too,” said an official, requesting anonymity.