New Delhi
Lajja, 54, has been living in Govindpuri since 2021, but since March, they have not had proper water supply. Every morning, she wakes up at 4 a.m. to switch on her motor and hardly gets a bucket of water. Her six-member family suffers from water shortage to the extent that she has been forced to reduce the amount of her blood pressure medicine and milk for her 11-month-old granddaughter. She said her monthly spending has shot up, and “now we are on the verge of giving up everything. We had to make concessions on necessities because we couldn’t afford to buy 5-6 Rs 40 water bottles daily. I have severe fungal infections because I can’t use a cooler and can’t have daily bath due to shortage of water”.
Daya Gupta, 52, said that the lack of water has sparked strife in her home because everyone must leave for work in the morning, but there isn’t enough water available for even the most basic needs. They rarely bathe, or they travel to their relatives’ houses to bathe and wash their clothes, which inadvertently leads to a rift in their relationship.
There are 18 families living in the three buildings of Gali No. 7, Govindpuri, who share Lajja and Daya’s daily struggle with lack of water. Sometimes, they fetch it from government offices, sometimes from relatives, and mostly have to cut expenses on essentials for something so basic. Frequently, they visit water board offices where they are asked insensitive questions like, “How are you managing? Oh!”; “Are you here for the water crisis issue?”; “I feel like you’re cooking up the story”; “One can’t survive this long without water”, etc. And after all this humiliation, nothing happens. Their papers keep circulating from the GE office to the MLA to the Delhi Jal Board, but nothing has happened so far. They are tired as the “process” itself is a punishment and want some permanent solutions.
Somnath Bharti, vice chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board, said: “We are providing alternate days of water and will install handpumps as much as required in the area.” Despite this assertion, the area nevertheless experienced severe scarcity, going four days without receiving even a drop of water.
However, according to executive engineer B.N. Gupta, these individuals are receiving sufficient amounts of water, and their JE, Naseem Ahamed, refused to make any official statements. Waterway officials say that the “lanes are congested, so we can’t send any tankers”.
In response to the condition of these 18 houses, Education Minister of Delhi, MLA Kalkaji, Atishi Singh, said that these two buildings are illegal and that water can’t be reached in them. Also, these buildings have crossed the maximum limit of flooring, which is three stories, but these are six. So, it is a location where water can’t be reached.
At an event on 19 July, Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, had proudly announced that only 16% of the nation’s population had direct access to water in 2019, and today it has increased to 65%. But it seems like Delhi isn’t fully covered.