[Reader-list] Water Supply in Bhalsawa- 2nd posting

[bharati chaturvedi]

dear lalit,

it is interesting that you bring up the issue of water in bhalsawa and note
that the area is a landfill. actually, it is ironic that people were ever
relocated to bhalsawa becasue one of the most severe environmental problems
related to landfills is the groundwater contamination. communities around
the world have suffered as a result of leachate (the toxic soup formed when
condensation and water from waste makes its way down into the ground and
takes poisons from teh garbage along with it) and studies show how severe
this actualy is.

however, what is more striking is the fact that the burden of waste, or more
significanlty, of consumption, is being shouldered by the poor and
dispossessed. take a look at the fact that there is no land to dump waste or
make new landfills. clearly, there is, but in the heart of sacrosant delhi,
where no one wants to see/smell or even, as you also suggest, drink the
waste they create. so we have landfills in bhalsawa, and the MCD knows how
toxic they are.yet, the poor and relocated in the midst of this hell.
without ever expecting too, these relocated communities begin to bear the
city's  toxic brunt. We have landfills in Ghazipur, next to a residential
area and okhla.when the water is contaminated ehre, the poor from  these
areas, who depend on handpumps, (for the lack of choice and no other
supplies) fight over this water. these areas were never deserts witho no
population  when planning was being done for the landfills. the new proposed
sites also bear the same discriminatory attitude. lalit, you can fid the
list in the new report we have done for waste recycling and planning. check
it out.

look also at waste recyclers, who pick up all our waste and recycle it, they
live on our waste and sleep in it, in the midst of sub-standard housing
where there is no infrastructure of any kind. so then, this is how the poor
have to hold up the flag of over-consumption.

cheers (?)
bharati



Bharati Chaturvedi
Director
Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group
Office : 12 Jangpura Market, Near Om Hotel, New Delhi. 110014
Mailing Address : 238 Sidhartha Enclave, New Delhi. 110014
T: 011-24314478
----- Original Message -----
From: "lalit batra" <lalitbatra77 at yahoo.co.in>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 12:03 AM
Subject: [Reader-list] Water Supply in Bhalsawa- 2nd posting


> Water Supply in Bhalsawa
> Bhalsawa JJ colony is situated on the Northeastern edge of Delhi
> surrounded by an overused landfill site, Bhalsawa Dairy and a string of
> unauthorised colonies. The colony was set up in November 2000 when 526
> slums were evicted from the Yamuna Pushta area and resettled in Bhalsawa.
> Within 14 months another 4000 odd families were moved to Bhalsawa from
> slum clusters located in areas as far flung as Garhi (East of Kailash),
> Jehangirpuri, Gopal Pur, Preet Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Seelam Pur, Teen Murti,
> Dakshin Puri, Rohini and Nizamuddeen.
> Bhalsawa was touted as the model resettlement colony by the then Union
> Minister for Urban Development but that gave little solace to the people
> who when moved to Bhalsawa found out that it was a completely barren piece
> of land with virtually no facility to meet even the most basic human
> necessities. One of the things that people desperately wanted and couldn't
> see anywhere was water both for drinking as well as other purposes. There
> were of course a few hand pumps installed but instead of water they poured
> out a foul smelling, saline liquid.  On the back wall, in bold red
> lettering there was a warning cautioning people not to use this liquid for
> drinking purposes. In desperation many people turned to the nearby
> gurudwara, which had been standing lonely in the middle of this barren
> wasteland for quite some years. The gurudwara authorities who were
> probably annoyed with the sudden deluge of ramshackle hutments in its
> courtyard refused to oblige. But this cold- shouldering couldn't last long
> as people became more desperate and thus more persistent. Even then they
> didn't allow people to fetch water from inside its premises. Instead a
> water pipe would be given outside the boundaries of the gurudwara on
> certain hours of the day and people were expected to take, in a
> 'disciplined' manner, not more than their minimum requirements of water.
> Its now over three and a half years since Bhalaswa JJ colony was set up
> but even now it stands on the margins of the water supply network of the
> city both in terms of the quantity as well as the quality of water with
> little opportunity (because of geographical marginalisation) for the
> people to tap into the pipes that give more and better quality water,
> something which they could do when they were living in jhuggie-jhopri
> clusters. The move from inner city slums to the 'colony', lying outside
> the network of a functional civic infrastructure, has thus severely
> limited the capacity of the poor to lay claim to common urban resources.
> Presently, there are three main sources of water in Bhalaswa JJ colony.
> The first one being hand pumps, some of which have been installed by the
> government while some are individually owned. Hand pumps promise 24 hours
> supply of water though this water is absolutely unfit for drinking,
> cooking or bathing. Hand pumps seem to be fairly evenly distributed within
> the colony. The second source of water is the sarkari tap. These are few
> and are concentrated in blocks A-2, A-3 and A-5. The reason for these
> blocks having more taps probably lies in the presence of a powerful CBO
> called Bhalsawa Lok Shakti Manch, which is associated with an NGO called
> Ankur. These three blocks are mainly inhabited by people from Gautam Puri
> (Yamuna Pushta) and Garhi. Since Ankur had been working amongst the people
> of Gautam Puri for more than a decade they are a lot more organised than
> people living in other blocks. The activists of Ankur and Bhalsawa Lok
> Shakti Manch have staged many protests against the pathetic water
> condition in the colony and forced the authorities to improve it to some
> extent. Now, in town planning parlance, the arrival of sarkari taps
> signals an integration of the settlement with the main supply network of
> the city. But for the residents of Bhalsawa taps are more of a bane than a
> boon. The reason being that the water these taps give is no better than
> the water that hand pumps provide. I saw people fighting with each other
> to fetch a bucket or two of a stinking, dark yellow liquid, which is
> provided by the authorities in the name of water. People told me that on
> some fortunate late nights or early mornings water is not coloured though
> it is foul smelling nevertheless. This water is preserved and used for
> drinking purposes.
> The blocks where water taps are practically non-existent are serviced
> through water tankers. Tanker water is locally believed to be the purest
> water available in the colony. But tankers come only once every two-three
> days. So every time a tanker arrives, there is a mad scramble, which has
> many a time resulted in violent skirmishes between the people. The curious
> paradox lies in the fact that those who have gained better access to
> 'regular' or 'mainstream' water supply are forced to drink dirty water
> whereas those who rely on 'irregular' or 'ad hoc' supply through tankers
> seem to be getting relatively better quality of water.
>
> So we have a situation where the colony is largely divided into the blocks
> getting more but filthy water and blocks getting less but comparatively
> better quality water. And the experience of people in both the
> circumstances is quite painful.
>
> Lalit Batra
>
>
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