“No Water for the Past 12 Days”: Kerala Stares at Severe Drought

Water is supplied through the public taps from midnight and is cut off before the break of dawn.

Ever since summer set in this year, there has been actute water shortage in Thiruvananthapuram. (Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

Bhaskara Pillai says that in 76 years, he has never seen such a drought. Come midnight, he has to walk 100 metres every other day to collect water from a nearby public tap. Not an easy task for the ailing man who lives on Aiswarya Lane in Amabalamukk in Thiruvananthapuram city with his 86-year-old sister.

“We haven’t gotten water supply in our home for the past 12 days. My sister is not able to walk. I do the household chores on my own. My health condition is also not well. I can’t carry weights, as I have problem with my knees. I don’t have any option, but to carry water from the public tap at the junction,” says Bhaskara Pillai, panting breathlessly as he talks.

Ever since summer set in, the water crisis has been acute in Thiruvananthapuram and its surrounding rural areas like Pantha, Tholikode and Vithura and coastal regions like Vizhinjam as well. In the city – more than half the city comprising high-lying areas like Kowdiar, Ambalamukku, Nanthancode, Aakkulam, Vattiturkkava and Chanthacila – it is severe.

76-year-old Bhaskar has to walk to the public tap every midnight to fetch water. (Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

The crisis in Thiruvananthapuram has affected people’s lives like never before. They can’t even sleep peacefully at night, since the water supply in public taps begins at midnight and ends before dawn. “What else we can do. Water in the public tap is available only at midnight. We have to be awake at that time. On some days, it’s not even available at that time,” Bhaskara Pillai says.

All the homes in the area are struggling with a similar situation. Just two homes away, Suresh Kumar, a retired sales tax officer, bought bottled water for Rs 3500 for use at home for two days.

We don’t get supply of water in our homes for seven or eight days together. Sometimes we avoid cooking and buy food from outside so that we can avoid having to wash utensils,” he says. The situation has gotten so bad that Suresh’s wife, an employee of the University of Kerala, has to bring water home from work everyday. “My wife is an employee of the University of Kerala. She carries cans with her while going to office and fills water from the office tap when she is returning. Washing clothes is a big problem. I went to my ancestral home two days ago to get the clothes washed.

Suresh Kumar

Hazeena, living in Karunya Lane in the area, has a similar story to tell. Her four-member family depends on the water supplied through public taps after midnight. She is near tears describing the struggle his family has undergone with water supply having stopped for the past week in their home.

Leave aside other things, we have to use the toilet. Clothes have just been kept in bundles as we can’t wash them. Food is bought from outside, and even when we cook it’s minimal to avoid washing utensils and ingredients and so on. Nobody in the house is so healthy as to carry water from the public tap, but what else can we do? We have to relocate somewhere. It has happened never before.

Hazeena

Murukan, who works in a laundry in Kowdiar, lives in Erappur five kilometres away. At his home, he says taking care of his young grandson has become a struggle, thanks to the lack of water. “We have a grandson who is one-and-a-half years old. Whenever he has to defecate, it becomes very difficult to wash him. We wash his clothes once in three days only. We can think of washing our own clothes only once in a week,” he says. His wife Mini, who works in a petrol pump in Kowdiar, says that the situation is worse at work.

We start our shift at 6 am and end by 2 pm. There is no water in the toilet. People from outside also use the toilet since it is a petrol pump. Three women work there. We can’t use the toilet now as it’s very dirty. What’s more is that we don’t even have water to drink,” she says. Ansar, a juice shop owner, says that water scarcity has affected his business. “We use bottled water to make juice. But to wash utensils there is no water. We used to sell juice for Rs 14,000 per day. This summer it has reduced to Rs 8,000 per day.

Mini, Murukan’s wife

The state water authority, together with the city corporation has been struggling to compensate for the scarcity with water tankers in affected areas. The water authority has set up 51 kiosks in different parts of the city, with each water tank having a capacity of 5,000 litres. The tanks are filled regularly, but are often not sufficient to meet the demand.

One of the 51 tanks set up by the state government which can hold 5,000 litres of water. (Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

The Water authority also imposed water rationing in the city from 18 April, as storage levels dropped drastically in the Aruvikkara reservoir, the sole water source for the city. It has stopped supplying water to around 20 firms whose water demand was too high. It has also disconnected supply to a swimming pool in Vellayambalam, which was consuming 2500 liters of water per month.

The state Water Resource Department on Thursday has decided to pump water from Neyyar dam to Aruvikkara reservoir to deal with the situation. There is, at present, 13 million cubic metres (13 mm 3) of water in Neyyar reservoir, of which only 6 mm 3 can be spared to supplement water supply to the city.

On an average, the city needs 400 million litres of water per day. The water level in the Aruvikkara reservoir depends on the inflow allowed into it from the Peppara dam, from where water is pumped into the city. According to reports, the water storage in Peppara dam is only sufficient for use till 22 May. If the idea to pump water from Neyyar dam fails or if it does not receive summer rain, Thiruvananthapuram is facing some grim days indeed.

(This story was originally published on The News Minute)