Dombivli Vandana Sonawane, a 38-year-old corporate employee, decided to take matters into her own hands on Wednesday to address the six-year-old water crisis affecting more than 1,350 residents of her housing society in the Dombivli Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) region.
Sonawane, who works as a senior branding executive at a multinational corporation, took leave from her work and started an indefinite hunger strike at her society to draw the attention of authorities. Soon after Sonawane sat for protest in her complex premises, other women also joined her.
Residents said that the water woes in their housing society – Deshmukh Complex with 19 wings comprising 1,312 flats – is acute. Residents get drinking water supply from the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) every alternate day for 15 days. Even the five borewells in the premises dispense water for only 15 minutes daily. Now, those who do not have enough water storage capacity in their houses, they often have to resort to buying drinking water or arranging for tankers.
Located in Golavali village, the housing complex is part of the 27 villages of Deslepada village, which made news on May 8 following the death of five members of a family who went to wash clothes in a quarry as there was no water supply for two days. Golavali village is 15 minutes away from the accident spot.
“There should be no deaths due to lack of drinking water. The recent incident of five deaths is one of the major reasons for me to take up this issue and fight,” said Sonawane.
Though titled villages, most of the 27 now have swanky newly-developed housing complexes that face severe water crisis.
Sonawane said, “I might have to resign from my job for this. If I don’t get the basic drinking water facility, I have decided to fight against it irrespective of the consequences. This is not the first time I have raised the voice for water supply. I will make sure this time I am not left unheard.”
Vandana is one of the 1,350 residents of Deshmukh homes that have been facing water shortage since 2015. She said that there is no fixed time for the supply and the water supplied is sufficient only to 50% of the residents in the society.
“Earlier also I had approached the officials through letters, protests, meetings and spoken to local politicians, however, there was no help. Several times we were assured of a solution but nothing was implemented,” said Sonawane.
Seconding her, Rajendra Kanojiya, 58, secretary of one of the societies’ Siddhivinayak FG of Deshmukh house, said, “The water shortage issue has been very bad in the entire housing complex. We have been asking for a permanent solution. However, no one paid attention. This strike is supported by the entire complex.”
Aruna Mate, 41, a resident of the complex said, “We have to purchase drinking water daily as the supply is not sufficient. Sometimes there is no supply for two long days. Whatever supply we get is also low pressure. We are a middle class family and have to spend ₹250 for 500 litres of drinking water daily. The need for water increases when we have guests at home.”
She added, “We have contributed from our pockets for all the technical works for the supply system has not been working properly.”
Over the years, residents have spent money to fix the problem. “In 2016, we spent ₹13 lakh to get a water pipeline. Last year, we paid ₹1.5 laks to increase the diameter of the tap from four inches to six inches. And just four weeks ago, we spent around ₹4 lakhs for zoning work as advised by KDMC but nothing works, “said Sonawane, who lives in the complex with her two daughters and husband.
Kiran Waghmare, executive engineer water department, KDMC, said, “There is an average water supply of 500-600 cubic litres to this housing society by the civic body daily. However, their internal distribution system is not proper due to their internal conflicts. We had asked the society to fix this first. Only then can water be supplied equally to all the wings of this complex.”
Sonawane however refuted the claims and added, “There is no internal dispute, we only receive 250 to 300 cubic litres of water daily which is very less and can only be supplied to 50 per cent of the residents. There is a requirement of at least 700 cubic litres of water daily which is not provided by the civic body.”
