This story is from July 4, 2022

Haryana: Why water at home is such a long wait for Nuh residents

Kusum was 18 when she moved to Rajaka village in Nuh after marriage. Soon after began a daily morning -- she and her mother-in-law would walk miles to fetch water from a well.Forty years later, it continues.
Haryana: Why water at home is such a long wait for Nuh residents
Kusum and her daughter-in-law collect water from the tanker
NUH: Kusum was 18 when she moved to Rajaka village in Nuh after marriage. Soon after began a daily morning -- she and her mother-in-law would walk miles to fetch water from a well.
Forty years later, it continues.
Kusum, now a mother-in-law herself, has been joined by her daughter-in-law in the trek to bring water back to the household.
“Earlier, we would walk all the way to another village to fetch water from the well.
Now, there are tankers, but we still have to walk to get the water. We are poor. We do not have the means to pay for a tanker to come to our home,” says Kusum, whose son is a farm labourer.
Kusum is one of many villagers in Nuh for whom a bucket of water is an everyday struggle. In 2019, the Centre had launched the ‘Har Ghar Nal Se Jal’ scheme with an aim to provide piped water to every household in rural areas by 2024. Haryana is among the top three states to have implemented the scheme. But locals in Rajaka and several other villages in Nuh are still waiting.
Three months ago, a team of government officials had come to Ganduri village and laid pipelines over the next few weeks. Taps were installed in houses too. “Pipe toh laga di, bola paani bhi aayega. Lekin abhi tak pani aaya nahi (They laid pipes and assured that water will come soon. But it hasn’t so far),” says Santra, a farmer.

“Ever since I was 5, I have been hearing that our village will get piped water. Do you think we have any hope left after all these years?” asks Ruksana, who is 17 now. Ruksana’s village has a small pond where people wash their clothes and use the same water for household chores. But what happens when the pond is almost dry during peak summer? “We don’t sleep at night. At the break of dawn, villagers rush to the pond and jostle with each other to collect a bucket of water. This leads to fights too,” she says.
Those with better incomes have built underground reservoirs at homes — locally known as ‘kundas’. These reservoirs are replenished with water from tankers every two or three weeks. According to Nafees of Hasanpur village, a tanker of water costs Rs 1,500-1,800. The water lasts almost 20 days for a family of 4-6 members. Many villagers share a tanker of water and the cost of it. “Just think how precious water is to us,” Nafees says.
Those who depend on water from these private tankers also need to spend around Rs 30,000 on building the ‘kundas’. “For most of us, who are just farmers or farm labourers, it isn’t easy to buy water from tankers or construct the kundas. Now that ponds are drying up too, where will we get water for our cattle?” asks Mohammad Jalees of Hasanpur.
Neighbours have to come to the rescue of some, like Jamil (45) of Bhadas village. “I am a daily wage labourer, I don’t make money every day. Whenever I have some cash at hand, I pay back my neighbour, who had helped me build the ‘kunda’ and buy me water,” says Jamil.
In Nuh, digging the ground for water is not an option. The groundwater here is saline and not conducive for drinking. The tankers bring water from distant sources, but that, too, is dirty at times, the villagers allege. “For the past few months, we have been getting saline water from the tankers too. We have made several complaints. But we don’t have many options. We drink what we get,” Nafees rues.
Water scientist Lalit Mohan Sharma, a senior member of an NGO called SM Sehgal Foundation, explains that less than 30% of Nuh district has fresh water – from the Aravalli foothills in Rajasthan. Since Nuh is on a low terrain, water flowing into the district collects mud and other salts on the way and turns saline by the time it reaches here.
“During British rule, a number of dams were constructed around Nuh and that stopped water from flowing into the district. Whatever water Nuh had in the reserve either evaporated or percolated into the ground. But the salts got deposited and turned the groundwater saline,” says Sharma.
Over the years, villagers built ‘kundas’. But they need to be maintained and cleaned too. “Regular cleaning of the reservoirs is required, but not many villagers can afford that additional expense. With water getting contaminated like this, many fall ill and suffer from skin rashes. The government should give us some tablets to purify the water and keep it safe from bacteria,” says Jalees.
Amid this water crisis, the tanker owners have been making a killing. A driver told this correspondent that on a usual day, around 300 tankers supply water to the villages.
Deputy commissioner Ajay Kumar agrees there is a problem at hand. “Yes, we accept there is a severe water shortage in Nuh. We have been facing a crunch in supply from the Yamuna too. The public health department, however, has been replenishing its water network through the pipelines. Connections under the Har Ghar Nal Se Jal scheme are also under way. Pipelines have been laid and taps installed in homes too,” he says.
But Khalib of Malab village – one of the biggest in Nuh with 10,000 voters -- chooses to differ. “We have been hearing that connections have been given to houses in Malab. But we haven’t got any connection so far. But even those who have got connections are yet to get water,” he says.
There may be a dearth of water, but not schemes. Apart from Har Ghar Nal Se Jal, Haryana has the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water scheme, too, that was launched in 2005 by the then Congress government.“The roadmap for the Rajiv Gandhi scheme was that they would take water from the Yamuna floodplains. So, the government made channels of 70-80km and made underground chambers to store the water. But they did not have a proper disposal system. Now, the water level in the Yamuna floodplains is also low,” says Kumar. “Unlike the Rajiv Gandhi scheme, Har Ghar Nal Se Jal aims at tapping the local sources to supply water to rural households. But it hit a hurdle in Nuh because there are no local sources here. So, what they plan to do now needs to be seen,” he adds.
Highlighting the way ahead, Shiv Singh Rawat, a superintending engineer in the irrigation department, said rainwater conservation was the prime answer to Nuh’s water woes. “The only solution is to conserve rainwater by any means. The Yamuna water is only available during the rainy season, which is for 3-4 months. That water is also affected by sewage and industrial effluents. The other options are the Agra canal, which supplies water to Faridabad and Palwal, and the Gurugram canal, which caters to Sohna and some parts of Nuh. But the quality of water is not even fit for agriculture. So, the government is thinking of sourcing water from Sonipat. It will take some 5-6 months,” he added.
Until then, the early-morning trek for Kusum and her daughter-in-law is likely to continue.
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