Bengaluru: “Women here do not sleep after midnight. Water is available between 1-3 am. We stay awake to store it because we don't get water every day. Even when we do, the drinking water is mixed with drain water. You can either sleep and lose water or get water and lose sleep,” said Florence, a resident of L.R. Nagar, Neelasandra.
Some adults even act as ‘water tasters’ to check if it is drinkable or not. “We have to let the tap run for 10 minutes, wait for the bad smell to go away. We then taste it, to check if the drain water has got mixed. Only then, we give it to our children. Otherwise we use it for washing vessels or clothes,” said Ravi, Florence's husband.
They say most children here suffer from stomach aches and infections which could possibly be because of the water.
Raja, a driving school instructor begins work at 5 am, before which he loses sleep over collecting water. “Why do you talk about drinking water? I don't have water to clean my small son, after he uses the toilet. This has been going on for 3 to 4 years now. Who is going to help us?” Raja wondered.
With no one to turn to, people resort to buying water cans, borewell water, a tank has been installed in the main road.
“I am a heart patient for the last four years. I get water from the tank on the main road and carry the heavy bucket all the way back to the inroads. I get very tired and am not able to climb up to my house on the third floor,” said Sharada, a 50-year-old woman.
The main road at L.R. Nagar in Neelasandra has not been restored after the BWSSB laid a new water pipeline – DC
The list of grievances of this ward in Koramangala, goes back in time. Puttappa informs, “We protested for a proper sanitary line and it was installed around nine years ago. The drainage from City Market was directed to our area and the small pipe would overflow.” A few years ago, they began laying another sanitary line. The work is still in progress with the main road dug up entirely. “No one knows when the drain work is going to end. This is meant for the houses on the main road,” Puttappa said, adding that, “To accommodate a piece of land for Garuda Mall, the new drain pipe has been laid criss-cross. This is not how it is supposed to be done and will just get blocked.” So the residents feel that even if the work gets completed, it would suffer frequent blocks due to zig zag arrangement. This would mean they will continue to be deprived of basic facilities such as clean water and proper sanitation.
