Kalina villages go without water for two weeks; blame scarcity on new dvpt

Residents have also alleged that chaabiwallahs from the H-East ward’s hydraulic department are hand-in-glove with the powers that be and divert water into the homes of the privileged. They arrive in a tempo with keys early in the morning, open the valves and divert the supply, they claimed

Mumbai: Around three lakh residents of Kalina Village and Kolivery Village –both in Santacruz – have been living without water in their homes for the last 15 days. Paucity of supply in the neighbourhoods is not new but the situation has aggravated now. While the 15% water cut imposed by the BMC this month has led to a severe crisis in various pockets of the city and suburbs, old residents of these neighbourhoods blame the setback additionally on the shiny highrises mushrooming around their areas.

Mumbai, India - April 14, 2023: Residents facing acute water crisis due to BMC's water cut policy, at Kolovery Village, Kalina, Santacruz, in Mumbai, India, on Friday, April 14, 2023. (Photo by Vijay Bate/HT Photo). (HT PHOTO)

Residents claimed that the civic body is siphoning water from the old villages into the newly constructed buildings.

Sanjay Mendonza, a resident of Kolivery Village, said, “Three towers have come up in the last one year at the entrance of the village. Large quantities of water is being diverted into the new homes from the same pipeline which supplies to our homes. Our zone has 60 houses where generations of residents have lived for over 100 years.”

Mendonza expressed resentment over water being used in the neighbouring construction by the watchmen for washing cars and floors. “Let them manage with borewells instead of cutting our water supply by 80%,” he said.

Residents have also alleged that chaabiwallahs from the H-East ward’s hydraulic department are hand-in-glove with the powers that be and divert water into the homes of the privileged. They arrive in a tempo with keys early in the morning, open the valves and divert the supply, they claimed.

Mary D’Souza, a resident of Kalina Village pointed out that four new buildings in the area allegedly have no occupation certificate (OC). She said, “They have put a pipe with a thick diameter on humanitarian grounds. Are we not humans?” Michelle Fernandes, a former resident of the village said she was compelled to move out of her old house into a new one in a neighbouring locality last year, unable to bear the constant water woes.

Former corporator George Abraham drew attention to the fact that the villages have suffered water problems for many years, which worsened with the recent 15% cut.

Carrying D’Souza’s thought forward, he said: “Many buildings do not have OCs and yet have been given water supply on humanitarian grounds. (The rule deems that in such a situation, residents be charged double the rate.) Is the BMC prioritising water over human beings who have lived here for so long?”

Abraham said the inhabitants’ speculation on BMC’s partisanship started when a few months ago when the civic body dug up the road for laying of pipes to transfer the connections. “The conjecture was that BMC quietly connected the line to the new building and since then supply to village started getting affected,” said Abraham.

A civic official from BMC’s waterworks department in H-East ward refuted the allegations. He said, “This is a scarcity prone area and we have tried to resolve the issue in the past. When new towers come up, we make arrangements for equitable distribution of water by increasing the pressure on valves. But this isn’t a ward-level issue. The pressure from the Bhandup treatment plant is low.”

He added that the chaabiwallahs have been instructed to increase the pressure on valves so that citizens do not suffer.

Taps run dry in Jogeshwari

A similar situation persists in Ram Mandir, Jogeshwari West. Ashraf Adenwala, a resident, said, in the past water in the tanks would last for 24 hours or more, with a two-hour supply in the night. “It has reduced to an hour,” said Adenwala, pointing to eight to nine towers coming up between Ram Mandir and Amrut Nagar. “Now, both areas get only half of the water supply.”

He added that residents of three new towers “are getting enough supply despite the water cut”. Like the residents of the Santacruz villages, he alleged, “The chaabiwallahs open the valves to provide more water to the towers, which has led to the scarcity in our area.”

Dr Prithviraj Chauhan, assistant commissioner of K-West ward, was not available to comment on the issue.

(With inputs from Jeet Mashru.)