HT Impact: Scarcity hit Shahapur villages get water

Vikas Jadhav, an official from Thane Zilla Parishad’s water department, said the villages would be provided with a tanker of water every alternate day or whenever they faced a water crisis

Thane: Following HT’s 30 December, 2023 report about water scarcity in three villages of Shahapur taluka – Fugale, Aghanwadi and Varaswadi, the Thane Zilla Parisha on Tuesday delivered two tankers of water. Around 1,200 people who reside in the three villages, located 120 kilometers from Mumbai, breathed a sigh of relief on getting water for their basic needs after nearly three months.

Hindustan Times Impact - The Panchayat Samiti Shahapur Water Department has started supplying water to Fughale and Aghanwadi villages with two tankers from Tuesday. Hindustan Times published the story on 30 December 2023. A water crisis in the three villages in Shahpur Tehsil in December month. Aghanwadi village women are spending whole nights in the forest to collect the  water from natural sources in Shahpur Tehsil, Thane,India. Jan 09,2024 (HT Photo)

The condition of residents in Fugale and Aghanwadi was especially acute as two of the four wells supplying water to these villages had gone completely dry, forcing them to travel long distances into the forest to fetch water. Two other wells had water that would last a month or so, said villagers.

Shankar Wagh, 40, from Aghanwadi said the water crisis started after Dussehra and peaked as time went by. “When everyone was celebrating the new year, we were busy thinking if we could take our first bath of the year since we had only one bucket of water, which we had reserved for cooking and drinking. Thanks to the report in HT, now, we at least have enough water for all our essential needs,” he stated.

Laxman Wagh, 59, another villager, said till now, they barely had enough water to wash themselves after working in farms all day. “Women would go out after evening every day to get water from the forest. They got some time to relax today after several days.”

Vikas Jadhav, an official from Thane Zilla Parishad’s water department said the villages would be provided with a tanker of water every alternate day or whenever they faced a water crisis. “We will increase the number of tankers during summer, if necessary,” he said. Authorities usually make arrangements for water supply to villages using tankers during the summer months, when the water crisis is grave.

“The early withdrawal of the southwest monsoon this year could have contributed to the rapid depletion of exiting water reserves,” said Thane collector Ashok Shingare.

Some villagers who had threatened to boycott the forthcoming elections due to scarcity of water said they would wait and see how frequent the supply was before taking a decision.