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installed borewell in the colony for adequate water supply.
“There is practically no municipal water supply in this area. For a monthly payment of Rs 150, we get water for half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening,” says Sairaben.
The water woes in Vatva have driven residents to their wits’ end. With thousands of people paying anywhere between Rs 80 and Rs 300 monthly to individual bore well owners in their area, these water lords are becoming richer every day.
Vatva has been under the municipal corporation for well over two decades but the water pipeline has not reached many colonies and settlements.
According to the residents, almost two-thirds of the area’s 2.5-lakh population is entirely dependent on borewells for their individual water supply. Those who cannot afford to dig their own bore well buy water from others.
Abdul Muqtaza, one such water lord, says he invested over Rs 2 lakh for his personal 400-feet borewell.
“I sell water to about 150 households in my colony in Bibi Talab area for Rs 100 a month,” says Muqtaza, who also owns a popular restaurant in the area.
In 2004, in reply to a writ petition by the Qutab Nav Yuvak Committee (QNYC), the Gujarat High Court directed the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to build tanks and provide water to the parched areas of Vatva.
“A tank with a capacity of 5 lakh gallons was constructed in 1981, but it cannot meet the growing needs of the area. A new tank which can hold 10 lakh gallons will be ready by the middle of next year and will take water to every household,” says Vatva’s municipal councillor, Devendra Prasad Bhatt.
Jehangir Khan Pathan, of the QNYC. With the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) says, according to a survey they did, people of this region spend up to Rs 20 lakh annually to buy water. Borewells are not without problems.
“Clean water can only be found at a depth of about 150 feet. Even so, the water turns brackish at times, from yellow to red to brown,” says Kaushal Ahmed, a resident of Melavadi in Vatva. Residents complain of chemical run-offs in ponds and canal. Skin disease and kidney stones are common ailments.
“Development has definitely found a communal manifestation in Vatva. The Aso Palav road, laid two years earlier, runs through the Hindu colonies, before ending abruptly near the Muslim settlements,” says Rafiqbhai Ahmed, of the QNYC. “A canal running through the region has a safety railing, albeit on one side, while it snakes its way through the Hindu colonies. A small bridge and a few Muslim houses later, the safety railing vanishes. The school beyond the bridge in the Muslim-dominated area had to put barbed wire fencing along the canal after a few students fell in it last year,” he adds.
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