How Ujjain survives with once in nine day water supply

Water has vanished but milk of human kindness is flowing

NK SINGH

OFFICIALY, Ujjain is supplied water once in nine days. But that is only on paper. Ground reality is even harsher: No one is sure when the next supply will come. 

The residents of this famous pilgrimage centre (population: five lakh plus) keep looking at announcements made through newspapers or the local cable TV network to find out the next date of supply.

“That water is life is no longer a mere slogan for us,” says Amit Goyal, a college lecturer, “we have come to realise that water is life.”

How does a town like that manage to survive? How the people, particularly the poor, cope up with acute shortage of one of the most essential necessities of life?

The answer is pleasant, very pleasant. Adversity can bring out the best in human beings. And the temple town of Ujjain-it is endowed with more than 1,100 religious shrines comes across as a fine example of that.

Milk of human kindness is flowing where water has dried up.

Heroes of Ujjain

“People are helping each other. Water is certainly the most precious commodity here. But those who have it are sharing it not only with their neighbours, but also total strangers from other parts of the town,” says retired professor Shiv Kumar Vatsa.

He himself is getting his water supply from the tube well of his businessman neighbour, Sunil Kumar Wadhwani, ever since the municipal supply dried up one and a half months ago. Wadhwani’s tube well also quenches the thirst of half a dozen other houses in the street.

Hundreds of social service organisations, such as Ujjain Seva Samiti, and even temples and churches have hired tankers to distribute water around the town.

But the real heroes of Ujjain are those ordinary, faceless citizens who have risen to the occasion and are sharing their meagre resources with the needy.

Dr. M.A. Sheikh, a surgeon has set up water tank outside his house, which replenished from his tube well. “I am doing what I am supposed to do. We Indians believe that giving water to the thirsty is a pious act,” says the doctor.

Everyone shares water

The unprecedented crisis in the town has brought out many a good Samaritan. They include not only rich people like Sheikh, who can afford charity, but even man of modest means like Ganpat Singh Chouhan, a local journalist.

Chouhan lives in the old part of the town, which is most affected by water crisis. When all the 39 wells in his street dried up last November, Chouhan dug up a new well inside his house, spending nearly Rs 45,000 from his pocket. He struck water, he says, “due to the luck of others”. 

Now his well supplies water not only to the people in the street but even to those living in other areas. “The doors of my house are always open. Anyone is free to walk in and switch on the motor to draw out water. The well belongs to everyone,” says Chouhan.

Chouhan can ill-afford this charity because his electricity bill has gone up by Rs 4,500 due to excessive use of motor. “The municipal corporation,” he says, “had promised to reimburse the power bills of citizens supplying water to others. But when I went to the power company, they said they had not received any such communication from the authorities.”

Good samaritan

There are many who have suffered due to their Good Samaritan act. College lecturer Amit Goyal had drilled a tube well in his house last February, spending nearly Rs one lakh of his hard-earned money, after all other water sources in his area had dried up.

His tube well yielded water for nearly 50 days, which he shared with 10 households in the neighbourhood. Then tragedy struck. The tube well dried up.

Does he regret that the well dried up because he had to share water with others? “We always knew that the source would not last long because the yield was very little. In fact, we had to ration water to two cans per family. But I am happy that I could help others as long as we had something to share,” says Goyal.

The day we visited him he was in a queue behind a water tanker in the street, trying to haul water in buckets and cans for his family.

Not everyone is, of course, so good. There are half-a-dozen borings in the street where Jeevan Lal Jain, a local businessman, lives. But it is only Jain who is sharing the proceeds from his tube well with the needy.

“I distribute water every day for 45 minutes. Anyone can come and fill his bucket from my tube well,” says Jain. Ujjain has become a sage of human endurance and human love.

The elixir of life “WATER is life” is no longer a mere slogan for the people of Ujjain. Adversity has brought out the best among the residents of the temple town. PEOPLE are helping each other, sharing their scare resources. HUNDREDS of social service organisations have hired tankers to distribute water around the town. BUT the real heroes of Ujjain are the ordinary, faceless citizens who have shown rare magnanimity. EVEN people of modest means are sending money on charity. THERE are cases of people who do not have enough water for their own needs; yet they are sharing whatever they have with their neighbour

A parallel network

UJJAIN has developed a parallel network of water pipeline, apart from the official one laid by the municipal corporation. These parallel networks can be found in all localities. 

The pattern is simple. Someone has a successful tube well. It is used to supply water to the entire neighbourhood. People have hastily put up new pipelines linking their houses with the tube well.

No wonders, the happiest people in these difficult times are the sanitary fitting traders and plumbers. Sale of plastic and iron pipes, fittings such as valves and jointers have gone up by ten times in the last three months.

Malik Bhai, who runs a sanitary store in Freeganj area, says he had to visit Delhi almost every week to replenish the fast depleting supplies. 

Plumbers have come to Ujjain from neighbouring smaller towns, hoping to make a killing, at least till July. 

Published in Hindustan Times, 18 April, 2009

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