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Sunday, October 09, 2005
"Eat with us. But don’t ask us for water"
Mid Day reports:
For the 4,000-odd residents of Shankerwadi, Malad, securing a bucket of water is a nightmare, even though they pay Rs 100 to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) every month for water.The people there therefore use a lot of contaminated water from a nearby well. The article looks at two couples whose children are often ill because of the dirty water they drink, and quotes one of the fathers as saying:
Every alternate day, the residents here wake up at 2 am and fill one or maybe two buckets of water, which must take care of entire families’ basic needs for two days — drinking, bathing, cooking, cleaning, etc.
We collectively earn about Rs 6,000. We spend nearly Rs 3,000 on medical treatment for our children … We are fed up of this. We’d rather go back to our village.I'm guessing that they'd gladly pay more than the 100 bucks they pay to the BMC for water if private operators entered the business. But would they be allowed to?
