'POISONED' NEAR PIRANA
Living Around Ahmedabad’s Mountain of Garbage
A multimedia immersive by
Himanshi Dahiya
reporting from Gujarat
"At least one person in each house in this locality is always sick. Stomach ailments, skin diseases and weak bones are very common," said Zarina Bibi, one of the thousands who live in colonies near Ahmedabad’s Pirana dumpsite. "We've been staying here for 20 years and we're drinking polluted water from the borewell amid lack of any support from the municipality.”
In use since the early '80s, the Pirana dumpsite is spread across 80 acres of land in the heart of Ahmedabad. It has three 75-metre-high garbage mounds and stores approximately 1.5 crore metric tonnes of waste collected over the years.
Zarina's colony in Citizen Nagar, like several others around the landfill, does not have access to tap water supplied by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
While other women in the area fetch water in pots from nearby areas, 61-year-old Zarina said that the pain in her knees does not allow her to walk long distances and carry weight. "Forget fetching water from the city, I cannot even fill pots when tankers come and I am alone at home," she said.
So, on days when water tankers come to her lane, Zarina's granddaughter Nazma skips school to fill the water tank kept outside their house.
Such hardships are unfortunate but not uncommon, among the thousands living on the periphery of Mount Pirana, Ahmedabad's gigantic landfill.
Two lanes away from Zarina’s house is Bangladesh-ni chali, a locality on the periphery of the landfill comprising Bangladeshi immigrants and people displaced from other parts of Ahmedabad. Here, people are dependent on two common taps installed by the civic body.
"We are 25 families who are dependent on water from these two taps for our drinking, washing, and bathing needs," said Shaheen Bano, another resident from a locality around the landfill.
A housewife, Shaheen said she spends most of her time stressing over figuring out how to meet her family's water needs. "We have three 10 litre tanks in which we store water. But on most days, by the time our turn comes, there is no water left in the taps."
"Akhha din kachre mein jaata hai aur shaam ko paani ka tension. Municipality ne nal lagaya hai, lekin paani nahi aata. (I spend my entire day in the garbage heap and my evenings are spent stressing over my family's water needs. The municipality has laid the pipeline and installed taps in all houses. But there's no water)," said Bharti, part angry, part hapless.
A mother of four and the only earning member in her family, 28-year-old Bharti has been working as a ragpicker at Mount Pirana for as long as she remembers.
"Chhoti thi tab se idhar hi hun. (I have been working here since I was a child)," she said, pouring herself a cup of tea, as she took a short break from her day's work.
Her struggle continues even after she returns home to Gopalpur, a settlement three kilometres from the landfill site. The struggle for water.
Bharti, Shaheen, Zarina, and hundreds of families living in Shahwadi, Citizen Nagar, Piplaj and Ektanagar, are caught in a catch-22 situation. They are either forced to drink polluted water from the borewell or pay for water tankers to meet their water needs.
SCHEMES, SCHEMES
AND... MORE SCHEMES
The Gujarat government has, over the years, rolled out multiple schemes to ensure that tap water reaches every corner of the state. In March 2022, while launching the fifth phase of the Sujalam Sufalam Jal Abhiyan (SSJA), Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel stated that the state government was aiming to achieve 100 percent tap water coverage across the state by the end of 2022.
“We are committed to making 100 percent tap water available to every household in the state by the end of this year. Lord Mahavir taught us to use water like ghee. The need of the hour is to consume water judiciously.”
- Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel on 20 March 2022
As of November 2022, only 75 percent of urban slums in Ahmedabad have piped water supply, according to data collected by Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University under the Performance Assessment System for urban water and sanitation — PAS Project. Ahmedabad is one of the bottom performers among cities in Gujarat.
In October 2022, Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra and several other party functionaries claimed that all 18,187 villages in the state covering around 92 lakh households are connected with tap water supply making Gujarat a 100 percent Har Ghar Jal State.
The scheme, however, only covers rural households and has no mention of urban areas.
The Gujarat government also supplies drinking water to 89 towns and 5,206 villages under the Sardar Sarovar Project. The project aims to cover 9,633 villages and 131 towns.
Reshma Mayuddin Shiekh, 43, another resident of Citizen Nagar, said that sometimes she wonders how all these schemes worth crores and crores of rupees have not been able to provide them with a regular supply of water, twice a day.
"We regularly hear about the government launching scheme after scheme. Try and visit our colony during the monsoon and you will realise the truth of these schemes. We are neck-deep in sewage water.
For days, water tankers do not come, and we have to walk to nearby localities to fetch water in pots on heads. You might think these are scenes from some remote village but no, this happens in Ahmedabad," Reshma told The Quint.
LIVING WITH CONTAMINATION
"We have dug borewells in our locality because water tankers are unaffordable. The taste and quality of water from the borewell is poor but what choice do we even have? Some families have installed RO for drinking water but for washing and bathing we use the water straight from the bore(well)," Shaheen said.
Speaking to The Quint, environmentalist and social activist Rohan Thakker said that the landfill alone is not responsible for the contamination of groundwater in the area.
Thakker has authored research papers on issues such as lost rivers of Rajasthan and Gujarat, wildlife conservation strategies, and international response to climate change.
"The state government and civic body's reluctance to clean the landfill has led to the emergence of a nexus of small-scale chemical factories around that area. These factories dispose semi-solid slurry waste straight into the Sabarmati river. Pollutants from these factories also leak into groundwater and air. When pulled up, the factory owners blame the landfill for the pollution," Thakker said.
Locals in Gopalpur and Citizen Nagar complain of increased cases of asthma, cancer, and heart and kidney-related diseases.
The Quint visited several private medical practitioners in localities near the landfill to corroborate the claims of residents.
According to MP Shah, an Ayurvedic practitioner with a degree in BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery), there is an increased number of children complaining of stomach related ailments such as diarrhoea and dysentery in the area. Shah has a clinic in Bombay Hotel area in Narol.
“Children are increasingly complaining of stomach disorders. The situation is especially bad during the monsoon. The quality of water is bad. Borewells are illegal and yet people here pay a huge amount of money to middlemen to get access to water from these borewells,” Shah said.
NETAS COME, NETAS GO...
GARBAGE STAYS
Over the years, the issue of the Pirana landfill has been raised multiple times by national and state-level pollution control bodies. "I had heard that the municipal corporation has been ordered to clear the dump site. Has it happened, yet?," Bharti asked.
She was referring to a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order dated 20 August 2019 in which the body directed the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to clear the dumpsite within a year.
In April 2022, the AMC approved tenders for 10-year operation and maintenance contracts of weighbridges used in garbage disposal, indicating that the civic body will take at least 10 more years to clear the site.
Sitting outside her two-room house, Zarina said, "The netas only show up before the elections. I don't think this site will be cleared. But the least they can do is to help us with basics like water supply and proper medical facilities."
Her family relocated to Citizen Nagar after their home was vandalised during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Five years on, as the streets in localities near the Pirana landfill are flanked by the posters of the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Shaheen has little faith in elections.
"Neta log to aate jaate rehte hain. Kachra idhar hi rehta hai (Netas come and netas go... but the garbage stays)," she said.
And if you ever needed any proof of that, take a look at how the Pirana dumpsite has only grown and grown over the years...
There are unfulfilled promises from the past. But as the 2022 Assembly elections draw close, a new set of candidates have brought with them fresh promises and fresh hopes for the people of Pirana.
(The Quint has reached out to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for their response regarding the story. This article will be updated as and when we hear from them.)
CREDITS
Reporter
Himanshi Dahiya
Multimedia Producer
Naman Shah
Graphic Designer
Kamran Akhter
Senior Editor
Somya Lakhani
Creative Director
Meghnad Bose
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