“We must have a decisive say in local development”

“How can decisions that vitally affect our future be taken without us having the decisive say?” “Forget decisive say – they do not even consult us!” “That’s not surprising - they want to take decisions that are going to harm us.” These were some of the exchanges between activists from various organisations staying in ~ 50 villages of Thane district who had gathered at Chincholi on December 18, 2007, in a meeting to discuss the latest problem that was going to be a big threat to their safety and security.

Chincholi is a village about 10 km from the Bhiwandi-Nashik road. The road has a very poor surface, with many potholes. It stretches on for 60 km till the dam site. The local people, to a large extent, have to depend on rickety, overcrowded rickshaws or trucks for transport. After several agitations, a State transport bus service was started last year. Its frequency however is very poor, and after 6 p.m. the people are left high and dry.

To increase the water supply to Mumbai, the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started to lay two parallel pipelines of 5 feet diameter on the opposite side of the road to the village. Once completed, the 60 km road will be effectively “walled” in by the pipes. The villagers know from their experience such a road breeds all sorts of criminals, since victims of robbery or violence would have no escape for miles. While the activists do not want to deny water to Mumbai, they point out that the network of pipes that are laid down for water and lately for gas in other places, do not have a road surrounded by pipes on both sides.

The activists in the meeting expressed their disillusionment with various big political parties who sacrifice the good of the people for their vested interests. They are determined to keep the reins of the struggle in the hands of the people and not surrender the leadership to these anti-people parties. They have chalked out a plan to force the government and municipal authorities to conceded their demand of laying the new pipeline underground.

The Local People – the Sufferers

• Mumbai gets nearly 3,000 million litres of water per day (MLD) from the Tansa, Vaitarna and Bhatsa reservoirs located in the Shahpur and Bhiwandi talukas in Thane district, outside Mumbai.
• The first stage of the Tansa dam was completed as far back as 1892. Since then, three other projects have been constructed to provide water to Mumbai's millions and a new project called the Middle Vaitarna, among five others proposed, is on the cards.
• The authorities are pressing ahead with this project though experts had warned that this zone is seismically sensitive and earthquake-prone.
• People’s land was forcibly taken away by the British, but even 60 years after independence, they have got neither compensation nor jobs. This, despite the fact that when the Bombay Municipal Corporation built the Tansa and Vaitarna dams, it had promised jobs to local people.
• 84 villages lost their lands to dams and water pipelines in Bhiwandi and Shahpur talukas and they have been repeatedly displaced, some as many as 4 times. Once pipelines run through a village, people lose their access to roads and hence to schools as well as health services.
• Recently the state government acquired land from more than 100 villages for this project and for laying pipelines.
• The residents of nearly 200 villages in the area get no water from the project – neither for irrigation, nor for drinking. Those who stay near dams have to walk 2 km for water. They now have to dig bore wells for watering their crops. About 99% of the farmers are buried in a mountain of debt and many of them have no recourse but to sell their land and lose their livelihood.

Big Companies – the Beneficiaries

• Industries are given concessions and cheap water in talukas like Wada of Thane district. While farmers are deprived of water, the Coca Cola Company is given cheap water. Daily water use by the factory amounts to about 90-100 units, with each unit equal to 10,000 litres. Coca Cola pays Rs.170 for each unit of water.
• It then sells Kinley Water at Rs.13 a bottle (of one litre) to farmers, with royalty of only 2p paid to the government!