CHENNAI: Poverty has become an unshakeable part of Mala V’s and her children’s lives after her husband died of cancer in 2017. She lost her left hand in a fire accident. Her struggle to educate her daughter and find employment to sustain the family shows on her wrinkled face. Adding to her woes, she needs to scrounge for extra money to pay for drinking water.
Because of the current water crisis and the government’s failure to provide potable water free of cost in resettlement colonies across the city, many residents like Mala are forced to spend extra money on water too. One such colony is the All India Radio Nagar at Tiruvottiyur in North Chennai.
Though the colony falls well within Greater Chennai Corporation limits and is part of zone one, residents are not provided with water through Metro Water-run tankers, and have to solely rely on private water tankers. Because of this, residents pay Rs 8 for one bucket of water. Families like Mala’s which have no income, find it impossible to pay Rs 2,000- Rs 2,500 for water from tankers every month.
Mala is a widow and a mother to a 15-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son, who has no financial assistance from extended family. The situation is so grim that the family has only one meal a day sometimes. Though Mala had submitted all necessary documents to receive widow pension and assistance for differently abled persons, she has received neither.
Real cost of water
Yasodha S, who was shifted from Arumbakkam, manages to take care of her family with only her 60-year-old mother’s income of a mere Rs 5,000. Of this, Rs 1,500 is spent by her mother to travel till Arumbakkam every day for work. And they spend Rs 1,500 a month to buy water from private tankers.
“We can hardly take care of other basic expenses in the remaining Rs 2,000. We wash all our clothes only once a month so that we use less water. For this, my mother takes one-day leave and loses a day’s salary too. As my husband lost eyesight in both eyes and his lower leg in an accident, he can’t go to work either,” said Yasodha.
For others like Nirmala M, minimising the usage of water is not possible even if she tried her best. “My son lost motor function in his right leg and left hand a few years ago. He uses at least five buckets of water for just using the toilet. So, I need to spend an extra Rs 500 only on water,” she said.
No aid from officials
Water pumps installed outside five out of ten recently built blocks in the colony have not been functioning for more than six months now, said residents belonging to the 320 families who were shifted from Arumbakkam, Korukkupet and Tondiarpet in 2017. “Because of this, we have to use water pumps in the older blocks where rehabilitated fishermen’s families live. They don’t allow us to get water from here and this leads to women quarrelling over water every day. We have been asking the housing board and Metro Water officials to repair these, no one bothers,” said Ilavarasi B, a resident.
As an alternate solution, residents, who can afford it, pool in money and install borewell facilities in their homes. Those who cannot afford it, pay Rs 100- Rs 1,000 a month to them depending on the amount of water they receive from the borewell. “When we first moved here, officials said water will be provided throughout the day in the overhead tank which will be shared by two families. But now, most pipes are leaking and we aren’t provided with water as promised. We are also forced to pay Rs 250 as maintenance to the government apart from electricity bill even though we aren’t provided with basic facilities,” said T Sumathi, a resident.
A senior Metro Water official said water is being supplied to the colony through the sumps of the houses, and that it’s the housing board department’s responsibility to source drinking water for residents. “Whenever the assistant engineers, who are part of the housing board department, complain of water shortage, we increase the supply. If slum clearance board wants Metro Water tankers, then they should pay us to facilitate this. So far there is no shortage,” said the official.