She did what BWSSB could not

She did what BWSSB could not
By S Lalitha, DH News Service, Bangalore:
One illiterate, gritty womans novel initiative in D J Halli can serve as an eye opener to both the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the government.

Social worker Victoria, a resident of Cauvery Nagar, has single-handedly redressed the water woes of 300 families. She has invested money in drilling a borewell in her house and has been sharing the water free of cost with those in her surrounding areas for the last three weeks.

Borewell water has been the only drinking water source in D J Halli for decades. The blocked sewage in drains and their non-clearance for many weeks, has ensured that water from the few borewell pumps located nearby get contaminated.

It has been two long years since the residents of the numerous lanes and by lanes of Cauvery Nagar have received clean drinking water.

Victoria’s venture into the affair began when repeated requests and protests by people of the area to the local BWSSB office to supply clean water did not bear any fruit.

Desperation drove her to make arrangements for her own house by paying Rs 26,000 and getting a borewell drilled for a depth of 40 feet.

It was the “sweet, clear water” which gushed from the pipes that made the people around request her for a few pots. Realising the desperation from the families around, Victoria decided to regularise the supply and make it systematic.

Her life has changed totally ever since the borewell was drilled on February 12. Victoria’s morning routine has been to sip her tea and distribute water from 8 am to 10.30 am to the people queuing outside her house pipe.
A sense of fairness prevails in this former Congress worker’s distribution scheme. “A minimum of four pots are provided for each family and larger families are given more pots,” she explains.

Heaps of praise

Grateful women clutch their pots in hands to get hold of this valuable commodity and heap praises on her. “The response is so overwhelming and I have promised these people that I will not stop the supply as long as I am alive,” Victoria declares. Her power meter bills are bound to soar from this month. “I have been involved in social activities and am willing to pay it on behalf of the very poor people around,” she adds. Her source of income is rents from a couple of houses she had bought in the area with the money she earned as a housemaid by working for 15 years in Gulf countries.

Aasya, was spotted in a queue outside Victoria’s house for her quota of water. “We used to buy a pot for Rs 5 from men on cycles, who sell water fetched from Tannery Road and other parts, in our area. I had to buy at least six pots for my large family. With the free water given now, my life has become so much better,” she says. Daulat Begum and her neighbours echo her views. The group also displays the monthly water bills (Minimum amount of Rs 83) sent by BWSSB despite no supply of water.

Electricity charges

The borewell cess presently collected by BWSSB is Rs 50 a month. When a top BWSSB official was questioned if Victoria would be asked to pay more borewell cess due to the increased water she would be drawing, he said that no extra charges would be levied on her. “The only cost she may have to bear will be the increase in her electricity charges.”