Mumbai: While the Health authorities across India have repeatedly emphasised on regular hand washing with soap and water as a precautionary measure against Covid-19, villages in Mokhada tehsil of Palghar district where is this additional water going to come from. As the entire world, today is battling with the deadly coronavirus by staying indoors, tribal families in Mokhada is fighting to ensure they get enough water to drink.
As people are coming forward to distribute food and other essentials to poor and needy, tribals in Mokhada are looking for donors who can help them get enough clean water.
“The 20-second hand wash advised to kill the virus, will take on an average 1.5 to 2 litres of water per wash If we are required to wash hands frequently, which is very much essential, this would mean about 15-20 litres of water per person per day. For a family of five, this is about 100 litres of water per day just for washing hands. Do we have that kind of water? Especially with the summer months approaching?" said Shraddha Shringarpure founder of Diganta Swaraj Foundation, dedicated towards the development of tribal communities.
The gram panchayats and tehsildar office in Mokhada are everything to ensure outsiders do not enter their village boundaries. Committees comprising of police, the village sarpanch, Asha workers, a representative from Tehsildar officer have been formed in each of 59 revenue villages in Mokhada to monitor everything during lockdown owing to coronavirus outbreak.
Shrigarpure added, "Sourcing the additional water for frequent hand washing will be a huge challenge for these households as well the administration. Especially those dependent on the water tankers for their supply. Hence keeping that in mind we arranged for distributing masks and sanitisers in all villages."
Social distancing, nationwide lockdown all these rules take a backseat in the 59 revenue villages in Mokhada. As soon as the water tankers arrive, villagers queue to get water defying social distancing norms. "Social Distancing? If we follow that, someone else would get ahead of me. Coronavirus is a distant threat for us right now, before that we will die of thirst if we won't fill up water," said Yadav Korde resident of Swaminagar village.
Today only 18-20 per cent of rural households in the country have a water pipe at home, leaving them vulnerable to a host of diseases. The coronavirus pandemic offers a perfect backdrop to examine India’s ongoing plans to improve this dire situation.
“In such a scenario, in light of the Coronavirus outbreak, the government should look at an equitable distribution of water, which is not happening. In Swaminagar, we have two wells hence we used to get two water tankers, however, now we are getting three water tankers in two to three days. This is the situation in all the villages in Mokhada Tehsil," added Korde.
According to the villagers, the daily water supply they received via tankers before Coronavirus outbreak was better than now when they actually need water. "Water supply has been reduced instead of one water tanker daily, we are getting one water tanker in three to four days. Once the tanker arrives and empties water in the well, the well gets crowded," said Ramu Naavle, resident of Naavlyacha Pada.
Devram Vaaje resident of Daapti village said, "Water woes in entire Mokhada begins in January and goes up to July-August. For around three to four months the scenario is better. However, with Coronavirus outbreak the number of tankers arriving in our village hs reduced rather than increasing to encourage people to wash hands or stay indoor. The number of tankers we get too have reduced in some villages, while at many other tankers arrive only after two to three days."
Meanwhile, the administration has its own challenges from implementing lockdown to providing employment to daily wagers facing the loss of income during Pandemic. "Under the jurisdiction of 24-gram panchayats as many as 315 work has been started under MNREGA scheme and 1721 persons from Mokhada have been provided employment till date during the lockdown period itself. We face many issues like people lie they want to go banks, buy essentials hence for a brief period of time we had to shut down everything. Things are under control. As far as water is concerned, it summer already and we cannot spend water generously, or we will face shortage later, we are working out on ways to resolve the issue, but we too are facing a shortage of manpower," said an official from Mokhada Tehsildar office.
