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Society
Looking Through Water
by Darryl D'Monte
Megacities in developing
countries face a chronic shortage of water, but they are seldom
accustomed to dealing with the opposite. Mumbai, India's commercial
capital, found itself in this situation on July 26, 2005 when it
received 944 mm of rain in 24 hours, most of it in five hours. No city
in the world would have been able to cope with such a deluge; when the
metropolis in question has 55 per cent of its 14 million inhabitants
living in slums, the catastrophe can well be imagined.
From coping with perennial shortages to coping with sudden surfeit is an
unprecedented challenge. As is well documented, people living in eastern
India and Bangladesh have for millennia learned to live with floods and
have developed their own mechanisms. It is built into their culture -
farming and even housing is adapted to these circumstances. But few in
urban areas are prepared for such eventualities.
The deluge demonstrated how people react to diverse situations when it
concerns water, how it is deeply ingrained in their culture. Although
there are long queues at community taps and public toilets in Mumbai,
there are established codes of conduct that ensure, for the most part,
that people cooperate, rather than compete, with each other. Given the
paucity of public toilets, as well as the lack of water to flush them,
the seaside is widely used by the urban poor. But here as well, it is
well known that certain areas of every beach are reserved for women so
that they can relieve themselves with a modicum of decency.
It is, inevitably, a question of culture and the overwhelming imperative
to build social networks. Despite possessing probably the largest number
of slum dwellers in any city in the world, Mumbai's other half has
always demonstrated its ability to survive despite all odds. Women get
up at unearthly hours to collect water when the community taps function
fitfully: they get to know by word of mouth and can 'reserve' their
place by placing a pot in the queue. Slum dwellers have actually built
homes along the massive pipes that carry water from the hinterland to
Mumbai and often tap them illegally.
Mumbai's slum dwellers have learned to exist with minimal supplies of
water for their daily needs. When thousands were marooned on 26/7, it
took all their human resources to combat the situation. As a member of a
Concerned Citizens' Commission which inquired into the causes and
consequences of the flooding which took nearly 600 lives, this writer
attended public hearings in the affected areas. An overwhelming
recollection was the trauma that slum dwellers faced: because the water
rose so rapidly, there was nothing anyone could do. As homemakers, women
faced the brunt of the crisis.
It was only because slum dwellers have already developed highly
intricate networks among themselves that so many were able to survive.
Badrunissa, with a 13-day-old daughter, testified how "all helped -
people carried my child in the water". Many slum dwellers found that the
only refuge from the swirling water were madrassas (religious schools),
where they sheltered for one or two nights and were even provided food.
Juman Ali, a hutment dweller who lost everything, reported how his
colony helped those who were stranded on rooftops - some from 3.30 pm on
July 26 until 7 am the next day.
The combination of poverty, homelessness, persisting illnesses and loss
of belongings contributed to a sense of hopelessness. Several women
mentioned that they walked with difficulty and found it tedious to do
housework. Some suffered from phobias regarding water, the very resource
that, ironically enough, was hitherto so much in demand. All the same,
the innate resilience which all slum dwellers possess came to the fore.
When the commission visited far-flung suburbs, despite heavy rain during
the hearings, women were trying to restore their lives as best they
could, even in ramshackle temporary dwellings. They were in desperate
circumstances, but were not defeated by it.
The contrast with the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans a few
weeks later was remarkable. In that city, those worst affected, who were
mostly black, abandoned their homes and were housed in a stadium where
they simply stared listlessly into space, waiting to be evacuated. Many
complained about the intolerable heat - they had always been insulated
by air-conditioning. There was also widespread looting and rapes - both
of which were conspicuous by their absence in Mumbai, despite much
greater poverty. It was as if there was nothing they could do to cope in
New Orleans.
At a public meeting in Mumbai to mark World Water Day 2006, addressed by
Medha Patkar and other activists, a woman from a slum colony reminded
the audience of some elementary facts: how it was difficult to maintain
basic personal hygiene because water was so scarce. It was impossible to
send their children to school in clean clothes simply because there was
no water to wash them regularly. She contrasted this with the unlimited
supplies that rich housing colonies received, even for swimming pools.
If 26/7 caused widespread illnesses, including the dreaded leptospirosis,
which is borne by rats, the ongoing shortage of water takes a very heavy
toll on health. The mortality rate has been kept somewhat in check
because women have maintained cleanliness despite everything.
Although flooding takes place in certain areas of Mumbai each monsoon,
26/7 was unprecedented. It brought out an often-forgotten facet of
culture in this congested metropolis: the infinite capacity of people to
help each other in times of distress, irrespective of caste or
community. In his 'Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found', New York-based
author Suketu Mehta illustrates this trait in commuters' readiness to
stretch out their arms to protect a fellow passenger who is in danger of
falling off a congested local train. The deluge brought out the very
best in citizens, particularly the poorest.
April 2, 2006
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
Top
| Society
The Week of April 2, 2006
In Indira's Footsteps: Will History Repeat Itself?
by Rajinder Puri
Wardrobe Malfunction - of Splits, Slips and More!
by Usha Kakkar
Weakness & Selfishness – Reluctant Parents of Virtue
by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Freedom by Naira Yaqoob
How to Overcome Failure? by Sugandha
Indulkar
The First Line of Defense by Michael Levy
Helping Your Unpopular Child by Garima
Gupta
Is Your 8 - 10 Year Old Crazy? by Gary
Direnfeld
Why do we have Kids! by Meera Chowdhry
Child out of School is a Laborer by Malvika
Kaul
The Water Bridge A Short Story by NS Murty
And, The Bell Rang A Story by Raghvendra Singh
Saving our Life-Support System by William C.
Gladish
Will the Creation of One World Solve the Problems
of Today? by TA Ramesh
Neo Imperialism at its Best by Tahir Raj
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Homeopathy: In a Realm of Its Own by
Rajgopal Nidamboor
The Homeopathic Treatment of Asthma by Dr.
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The Omega 3 Code by Neeta Lal
Risky Reconstruction & Breast Cancer by Elayne
Clift
Human Rights and Criminal Justice System by
Dr. Shanker Adawal
Panch-Kanya: The Five Virgins of Indian Epics
by Dr. Prema Nandakumar
Bheel Mahabharata: Kunti and the Birth of the Sun
God's Child by Satya Chaitanya
Sadaat Hasan Manto : A Profile compiled by
Aparna Chatterjee
Tamil Nadu, Here I Come! by Usha Kakkar
Mothers Without Strings by Tripat Kaur
Shaking Up the Diaspora by Crespo Sebunya
Looking Through Water by Darryl D'Monte
One Woman Army : A Profile of Zakia Arshad
Epic Adventure by Anjum Wasim Dar
Crowning Glory: An Interview with Manoj Bajpai
by MH Ahsan
Pakistan Calling: An Interview with Akbar Khan
by MH Ahsan
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