Parvati's 21-year-old son Hiraman Ramo says that a struggle for water is a constant in the life of Dolara from March to June every year. The village's women spend at least two hours daily to trek to the nearest well to fill handis (pots) with water. These pots not enough, men travel four kilometres to Sadakwadi to fill up drums.
Eighty-year-old Gopal Yeshwant Damse is among those who go to Sadakwadi every evening. "I have been doing this since childhood. It takes 50-60 buckets to fill a drum," says Damse. Everywhere in the district, blue drums attached to bullock carts are a common sight.
After much persuasion, the collector's office installed a tubewell in Dolara, but villagers say it does not work. The zila parishad started sending water tankers to villages, but Dolara has not benefited.
"The water tanker service, which has just started, is of no use to us," says 28-year-old Dolara resident Rekha Shailesh Palwe. "Since we don't have any well or direct access to water, we have to walk down to get water."
Rekha's 8-year-old daughter helps the family by participating in the trek.
The tanker service, incidentally , has become a political tool. Every party in the area-Shiv Sena, MNS and Congress-has started its own water tanker service and provides water only to its loyal voters, says Pandu Malav of Shramjivi Sanghathana. "The government isn't serious about giving us water. There is ample opportunity to develop a proper piped water scheme, which would benefit all villagers," adds Malav.
Dolara is barely six kilometres away from the Middle Vaitarna dam. Civic officials say they cannot distribute water to nearby areas since official policy does not allow it.
"Currently, there is no such provision as the dam has been designed for the city. However, if the state deems necessary, provisions can be made. The problem in the area is not scarcity of water but lack of planning on the part of the irrigation department ," said a senior BMC official.
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