Hunger strike for water crisis
Sajana Nambiar
DOMBIVLI: Vandana Sonawane, a 38-year-old corporate employee, decided to take matters into her own hands on Wednesday to address the sixyear-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.”
Seconding her, Aruna Mate, 41, a resident of the complex said, “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.”
She added, “We have contributed from our pockets for all the technical works for the supply system to work properly.”
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.”