Thane village faces dry, sewage-filled wells

Since the beginning of this year, a village situated on a hillock in Shahapur has been grappling with a severe water crisis.

- Anamika Gharat

THANE: Fugale, located 120 km from Mumbai and home to 1,600 residents, has seen its wells run dry, some even contaminated with sewage.

Villagers alleged that the bathrooms for labourers working on the Samruddhi highway had poorly constructed sewage lines, which caused the waste matter to seep into the ground and then the wells. Although the tehsildar arranged for a team to investigate the water contamination issue, villagers said they were still waiting for an effective solution.

Every day, women from the village walk down 1.5 km to fill up two 10-litre water containers from small springs and trudge back up to their homes on the hillock with heavy buckets. For an average family with six to seven members, the water was barely enough to meet their drinking and basic household needs, they said.

Despite repeatedly sending letters to the tahsildar of Shahapur, the residents have been receiving only one tanker of water which, they said, was not just insufficient but also dirty and thus unusable.

Laxman Wagh, a villager, said that the toilets constructed for thousands of labourers working on the Samruddhi highway's eight-km tunnel, had caused significant problems. "The improperly built sewage lines have led to waste water mixing with the ground water, contaminating our wells," he said. "Every year, we face water shortages, but since last year the problems have been starting as early as December, whereas previously they began around late February or March." "The water that is made available has become undrinkable and unusable. This issue needs to be urgently investigated and resolved by the authorities."