The source was dangerous. Around 400 families in Noida’s Valmiki Basti have been left without drinking water after the authorities sealed a leaking pipeline that residents had been relying on for nearly a month. But for 400 families, it was all they had.
But with the leak now plugged and no alternative arrangement announced, the community is facing a deeper water crisis than before. The pipeline was hazardous, and the authority’s concerns about safety were not unfounded.
A government tubewell belonging to the Noida Authority stands nearby. Its main pipeline runs under the drain. The pipeline has been leaking, and residents were collecting water from that leak for drinking, cooking and washing. One of the girls fetching water, Sonam, spoke to NDTV after climbing out of the drain with a filled bucket. “Brother, what can we do? We come here every day to fill water like this. We drink this water and use it to do all the household chores, including washing clothes and utensils. We come here with buckets every morning and evening. We’ve been filling water like this for the last three months. We come here every day, and we even cook our food with this water.”
Before that, we used to fill water from another pipe in the drain ahead,” she said. When asked whether she was afraid of falling, Sonam said simply, “No. Another girl, Muskan, said, “The situation has been like this for months.
