My struggle to gather water

For the past few months, Metrowater has reduced its supply of water. Even though my family manages with meagre water available in the borewell, it affects my work massively. We have five members in the family and I run a motorcycle washing centre near my house. During the initial days of the water crisis, I used groundwater to wash vehicles. But now, I have stopped accepting orders. Other vehicle washing centres in the locality are also closing down.  We are fortunate that our borewells have not run dry. I cannot imagine how we would manage if it did. 

We used to use groundwater for household chores. Now, the borewells in all the houses in our street have dried up so we are forced to get water from street corner handpumps and Metrowater water tankers. Metrowater stopped supplying regular water to our houses nearly six months ago. On every alternate day, they would send small water tankers bring water to our street. Each lorry carried sufficient water for around 100 plastic pots only and Metrowater had imposed a condition: every family can fill only five pots of water. We are a family of three and five pots of water is insufficient for our household chores. So, I have to go use the handpumps in others streets to fetch water. It takes up most of my day.

It has been more than three months since we have been using water from the handpumps. In my area, lorry water was being provided only on Friday until three months ago. Now, they don’t come here anymore. I have to go to the nearby handpump every morning and stand in a queue for one hour to collect water. Each day I need six to seven cans of water and sometimes, if we need more water, then we have to wait in the queue for another hour. My children get late for school sometimes because it gets late to cook and send them off. What’s worse is that I have not been able to wash my hair for several days! There are a few handpumps in the area and they are always crowded.

We don’t get adequate water supply now because our sump has half its original quantity of water. Earlier, water from the sump used to be sufficient for cleaning, bathing and washing, but now the water does not last through the day. I have left with no option but to depend on tankers. I had requested for water Metrowater department, it has been more than 15 days but I am yet to get the water from their tanker. I have to buy bubble top cans for drinking water and even they have increased their rates from Rs 35 to Rs 40. My only source of income is the rent I collect from two rooms in the house. I had two tenants but it became difficult to supply water to them and they left. 

I have been living in Kannagi Nagar Slum Clearance Board apartment for 18 years. There is a Metrowater handpump near our apartment, but water has been coming once in three days for the past one month and the quality is poor and mixed with sludge. I collect water in pots and wait for some until the mud settles down. I use the water collected from handpump only for washing clothes and utensils. To get drinking water, several women in my apartment have to go to a nearby pumping station. My husband is a fruit vendor and I spend eight hours every day to collect water. It has been three months since our locality received quality drinking water. 

I stay in a rented house in GKM Colony and this year has been really challenging for us because of the water scarcity. The Corporation releases water around 5 am and it is difficult to pump water from handpumps early morning. My son goes to college and low water flow makes it extremely difficult to manage daily chores. Earlier, our water tank used to get filled after switching the pump on for 20 minutes, now, even after 45 minutes, we get little water. We even had disputes with the owner as he had promised that the area does not face water shortage. Since it has started raining now, I hope that the availability of groundwater improves. 

We are a family of four and live in a Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board apartment. We could have our own borewells as we live in slum board apartment, but we depend on free tanker water supply and street corner handpumps.

I just landed in a job in a private company. Before that, I used to collect water from the tankers. We do not know the exact time for the tankers to arrive. My brother, who also works in a private firm, and I fill up pots from the tankers depending upon who is at home when the tanker arrives. Sometimes, they come even after midnight. At times when we miss the lorry, we collect water from a handpump near our apartment block. Whenever we miss lorry water, we use that handpump. 

I work as a night watchman in a private company and my duty hours are 5 pm to 7 am. We stopped getting proper supply of water at home a few months ago. We are a family of five and I am the only male member so the responsibility to collect water from a long distance away is mine. Every day, after 7 am, I take my bicycle to collect water from a handpump inside the Metrowater filling station in Valmiki Nagar, which is nearly a kilometre away from my house. We need 30 plastic pots every day and I make 10 trips every day to get 30 pots of water. Due to this, I don’t get enough sleep. Earlier, tankers used to supply water, but the water was not clean. Our skin would itch after bathing with it.