Video Editors: Prashant Chauhan, Kriti Saxena
"We are told water will come today, tomorrow, day after! When will we actually get water? We made you big and you cheat us?" an old woman shouted on a mic from the gathering at a protest site in Maharashtra's Baramati in January this year. On the stage was Lok Sabha MP and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCPSP) leader Supriya Sule.
At least 24 villages from the Baramati Lok Sabha were protesting for the the most basic demand - water supply.
The protests were called off a week later after assurances by both Sule and Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar - now on opposite sides — and written assurances by the state government to expedite supply of water to these villages by 7 April.
Come April 2024, the villages still await the promised water supply.
"When we go the the concerned offices, they say the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is in place now. Once they actually shooed us away," a local told The Quint on the condition of anonymity.
We have never seen water in our taps is a common statement in over 20 villages merely 30-40 kms away from the Baramati city — the home turf of the Pawar family and a development model that the Pawars take pride in.
Water Woes of Baramati's Villages
While the election in Baramati is mostly about NCP vs NCP, Sharad Pawar vs Ajit Pawar, and candidates Supriya Sule vs Sunetra Pawar, the is the struggles of scores of farming families across several villages in the Baramati Lok Sabha of Maharashtra due to water crisis is a decades-old issue.
On the way to a few villages, one can see dried up farms and crops due to drought and lack of water supply.
Most villages still rely on tankers that the local administration provides every five-six days or once a week, with each family getting about 150-200 litres of water. Most families across these villages have to ration the available water to drink, cook, feed the cattle, wash clothes and utensils, and farming.
"An entire village is never able to get sufficient water at the same time from the tanker. How will it? We have to ration water. A few people bathe on one day, the others will bathe the next day. We take turns to bathe every two days, that's how severe the crisis of water is," said Latabai Kalkhaire, a local from Panserewadi village, narrating how women in the village have spent their lives rationing water.
Latabai, along with many other men and women from the village had just managed to fill one barrel of 200 litres and a few pots.
"Sometimes, we don't get any water at all. That happens every alternate turns. We have to borrow water from others who have more. Even those people don't have much. I have never seen water in the taps here ever since I got married and came here," said Nirmala.
'Who Will Compensate for Farming Costs?'
The men, meanwhile, narrated the woes of farming that they have faced having seen no constant water supply, generation after generation.
"I was born here. There are no provisions for water supply here. They only make promises during elections. 'We will give water, vote for us...' - that is all they say every election. Be it a Zilla Parishad election or a Panchayat Samiti one, MLA or MP - water is the only issue. There are only assurances, zero deliverance," said Lavaji Kalkhaire, a farmer from Panserewadi.
"My father's entire life was spent like that and now I am reaching old age, but water hasn't reached us. And whatever we get, we have to pay four times more money sometimes to get it. I collect money from people in the village to get water but that doesn't suffice either. People end up fighting for it. Everybody wants their share, there is no authority around," he added.
Most farmers often lose investments they make for cultivating crops.
"This time we thought we will do better farming but there's no water at all. We bring seeds, sow them, the crops grow, but they dry up. All the investment goes to waste. The cost of ploughing, sowing, fertilizers, everything gets wasted. Who will take responsibility?" Mahadev Kalkhaire, another farmer from Panserewadi said.
"We get water at the Supa lake. When that comes, there is no provision for that water to reach the village. We pay the tanker guys to get that water here. They charge Rs 1,500. Those prices too go up to 2,500 now," he added.
Topograpgy, Nature, or Politicians? Who's Responsible?
The Pune belt that begins from Saswad to Indapur is a belt that has geographically witnessed scarce rainfall. Experts say that there is adequate rainfall in the region only once in three years.
Sharad Pawar, while he served as the Baramati MP, was credited for bringing in the Janai Shirsai Lift Irrigation scheme for 48 villages of Supa Pargana taluka and six villages in Daund taluka of Baramati.
Under the scheme, water has to be lifted at three places using motors —Daund, Varvand, and Purandar — and supplied to these villages. However, the villages have to bear the water cost, maintenance cost, and electricity cost.
While the scheme has been implemented over the years in various forms and with several amendments, ineffective implementation, farmers' lack of ability to pay the bills, and political and administrative apathy have been cited as key reasons behind the scheme's struggles.
In the meantime, villagers say that the central government's schemes under the Jal Jeevan Mission and Har Ghar Nal Yojana have also not reached them yet.
In January this year, 24 villages protested to demand resolution to their water woes. Both MP Supriya Sule and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, now on opposite sides, met the protesters separately.
After a meeting with the state and central authorities in Mumbai, 12 key demands were accepted, which the villagers say, will lead to long-term solutions.
'Will Still Vote for Pawars'
Despite years of struggle for water supply, many voters have remained loyal to Sharad Pawar and the Pawar family, who have had undisputed political dominance in the the region for decades.
Now, with the new political winds and the divide in the Pawar family, many feel that whoever wins, they will be forced to resolve the water crisis to prove a point.
The issue of drought and water crisis has been significantly taken up in speeches by Supriya Sule, Sharad Pawar, and Ajit Pawar throughout the campaigns in Baramati, with both sides pinning the blame on the other.
But with the agenda of crowning one Pawar as the 'real NCP' on the minds of most voters of Baramati, will the issue of water woes may not take precedence.
"There are two faces of Baramati — one is prosperous Baramati and the other is drought-prone Baramati. One one hand, people don't have water to drink but the politics is at its peak. What does one prioritise? What does democracy even mean? Who is the election and administrative machinery for?" said Hanumant Chandgude, renowned author and social worker who resides in Baramati's Supa.
"Politics happens on farmers in this country. This politics needs to stop and we need to be respected as human beings. This is all we expect. Everybody thinks that the way Raavan's Lanka was made of gold, Baramati is made of gold. But next to the Baramati made of gold, everything is ash," he said.
(On ground collaboration: Dnyaneshwar Rayate)
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