Much of Mumbai relies on water from tankers. www.flickr.com user Eileen Delhi
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the water supply to our apartment complex is another of these things in India that there is no logic to. If there is a system, I’ve given up trying to figure it out.
When we moved into the apartment almost two years ago, we had 24 hour water supply. I was blissfully unaware that it could be any other way. Not long after, an ongoing series of events started taking place and we’ve rarely had 24 hour water since!
Firstly, the water supply mysteriously disappeared one day. None in the taps at all! Interrogation of the watchmen (who seem to be custodians of the water supply here) revealed that there was a “problem with the pipes which would take three or four days to fix”. We would, however, be given water for a few hours every morning and evening, but none to flush the toilet. It was most inconvenient, as we were accommodating an international guest with a badly upset stomach at the time.
A few months later, the water supply problem returned. It wasn’t resolved for nine months. Nine months of tipping buckets of water down the toilet to flush it. (We fortunately have overhead water storage in the apartment, but the water only comes out of two small taps. Not the shower, not the toilet, and not the kitchen).
“The municipal council isn’t supplying enough water to the apartment complex”, we were told. “It’s because the building society registration formalities are yet to be completed”.
Apparently, the municipal council doesn’t provide full water supply until a building society is properly registered. Never mind that the apartment building was around four years old. The application was still sitting in a BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Council) office somewhere.
“Once all the formalities are complete, the paani ka problem will be solved forever”, we were reassured by the landlord. “It won’t take much longer, just a few more months”. Foolishly, I was lulled in to a false sense of security when the water supply was reinstated to the apartment building in March this year.
Only a couple of months later, the municipal council announced a 15% water cut. The lakes were at a dangerously low level and the city needed rain.
For us, the 15% water cut translated into a 75% water cut. Again, the same situation with the water supply returned. Water for a few hours three times a day, and none for the toilet. The water supply was miraculously reinstated for a month (despite the water cut still being in place), only to revert again to the usual situation.
Asking the watchmen for the timings of the water supply was fruitless. “We’ve stopped turning the taps on and off to save the water in the tank”, they told my husband. “It will come at midday, and go off when the tank runs out in the early afternoon”.
Therefore, I was very surprised when the kachra-wala (cleaner/rubbish guy) came knocking on my door late afternoon, the day before the start of Diwali. He wanted to hook a pipe up to the tap in the toilet, and use the water to wash down the first floor landing and stairwell. “But there’s no water”, I tried to tell him. The water supply had been gone for hours. I was wrong though. He hooked the pipe up, turned the tap on, and water came gushing out. From where, I have no idea.
The kachra-wala proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes wasting the water, by hosing down the landing and stairwell. Water was literally pouring down the stairs and out into the lobby. A couple of hours later, I went outside. The stairwell and landing were still wet, but now dirtier than ever from the mud off people’s shoes.
Yesterday, there was an announcement in the newspaper. It was an announcement that everyone had been dreading. The monsoon had failed to produce enough rain to fill the reservoirs. The 15% water cut would be immediately increased to a 25% water cut until the next monsoon. Furthermore, it would be raised to a 30% water cut over winter, when demand was less.
I expected the worst. I rushed through my household chores (washing clothes and washing the floors) as soon as the water supply came at midday. However, to my astonishment there was still water at 5 p.m. Even at midnight, there was water.
The BMC had almost doubled the water cut, and our water supply (except to the toilet) was back to normal. Kamaal hai. I’m left wondering what can possibly happen next. As one of my friends said, I’ll just have to go with the flow (or lack of it!).
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Oooh mystery # 508! Whatever happened to 1066 after 1065? Or isn’t there a sequence here?
The water problem is all over. We have it in Delhi too. For many homes the daily routine of cleaning and doing the laundry revolves around the water schedule. Can’t do anything about it.
A strange thing is even though the government sits on the application for legalising the residential areas, it never stops billing for the water while it is sitting on the application! Ain’t that strange?
They are Indian mysteries…. so of course there is no sequence! Can’t have them being orderly.
I operate according to a water schedule here too. In fact, I told my mother that she can’t call me between midday and 2 p.m. because I have to get the housework done while there is water!
Oh, and of course we get billed in the same manner here too. We even get billed for water that isn’t supplied during water cuts!
Our building has started getting tanker supply nowdays. and the water inlet that connects the tanker to our building storage, is in a tight corner.
The tankers usually get stuck if the driver is not skilled enough..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/globe_treader/3978898051/
I get piped cooking gas in my house and the supplier is Delhi Jal Board. There hasn’t been any gas for more than a month now and they’ve said they won’t bill us for the two months there isn’t any gas supply. Let’s see what they finally do.
Haha, that photo is great Kiran! Thanks for brightening my day with it.
(Oh, and I wish our building would get tanker water too).
Ramit, that is a terrible state of affairs!!
No gas in the pipeline!! I had no idea that this sort of thing was yet another kind of problem in India (we have piped gas too). Hearing about it makes me feel a little better though, I’m not the only one who’s home has functionality problems. Have you got a gas bottle in? If so, how difficult was that to do?
Ha! ha! ha! It is so nice to be able to laugh at it now that I dont have to wake up at 7 am to clean, sh*t, shower before the water goes off at 8 am. And winter? what winter? One still needs 2 showers even in winter. And gas in the pipeline is a bad idea. Please apply for one of those red cylinders that may blow up your house. It cost me about 3000 for the ‘connection’ + the first cylinder and another 500 for another cylinder. This way you may not have water but atleast you will have fire. I used bharat gas.
Indeed June! One of the reasons I’ve resisted getting a maid is because housework is my main form of exercise. Do some home aerobics, go out for a walk, or go to the gym? Forget it. Can’t even take a shower at home afterwards.
I have to time my housework with my shower because I’m usually drenched in sweat after cleaning the floors. So I don’t wash myself until 2pm. It’s a good thing my husband isn’t a strict Hindu who believes in bathing before breakfast!! We’re usually up too late to catch the first installment of water. 
Sharell: We have piped bio gas in Delhi. What you have in Mumbai is probably piped CNG for your kitchen. We also have piped CNG but not where I live. We have Bio (degradable) gas. It’s made from cow dung and degradable kitchen waste and yes it stinks but you don’t have to smell it PGB. I have a spare cylinder to use for when the bio gas goes out. All houses that have bio gas in Delhi have cylinder gas too. We’re an intelligent lot!
What you call gas in a bottle is probably the red cylinder
WOW that is something with the whole water issue you guys have right now. I thought it was bad here where I live that they keep raising out water bill for no reason, and get pissy because right now they are flushing the fire hideringts and our water pressure is low or non at all till they are done for the day.
Hmm, I don’t want to alarm you but we are entering stage 4 water restrictions at home. But it’s ok! The government allows for a 4 min shower per person per day
V wow I could not take shower in 4minutes I don’t think I guess if I had to I could
V – my gosh. Ah well, at least they have water restrictions. They don’t just wait for the water supply to get dangerously low and then cut it off all together like here!
A friend of mine who lives in Brisbane said they have stage 6 water restrictions up there. I can’t imagine what that means!! 
Yeah Nick, it’s a bit funny really. Every house was sent a 4 min hour glass to stick in the shower, not many people use it though! By the 4 min mark my head is still full of bubbles.
Ramit — oh, it’s bio gas! I was thinking it was just normal gas like we have in Mumbai, and was shocked to think the supply of that could run out too (like water and electricity).
Stage 6. Not good! I really never realised that the country was so so dry. Hello Global Warming!
This is incredibly interesting for me to read
it reminds me my life in Armenia
New Bombay rarely experiences water shortage. Whenever there is, our colony manages through tankers. We didn’t even have any water cuts during the rains because the rains have been good in the major sources.
But I feel such problems in large cities teach the people a lesson. To be more frugal.
For affluent people all over the world, where there is no limit to the resources one can obtain, are almost obscene in their indiscriminate use of water,electricity, and other resources.
I,on my part, take only a five-minute shower everyday and I brush my teeth and pee under the shower itself. No question of bubble baths because my father got all the bath-tubs in our house removed. Even though we have uninterrupted water supply.
Ha! Guys and their peeing under the shower. I’m surprise my husband hasn’t used that reason to justify doing it!
How is the electricity supply in New Bombay Akshay? Do the problems extend to where you’re living?
I so miss taking a long, hot bath.
Well, apart from loading shedding occasionally, it’s ok I guess.
Many homes here have inverters, because till recently 3-4 hrs of load shedding were quite common.
Anyway, a water pipeline collapses on a local train in Mumbai.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.ndtv.com%252Fnews%252Findia%252Fmumbai_pipe_falls_on_train_services_disrupted.php&h=e6e40530696aa08de17525cb9c086d22&ref=nf
What’s wrong with peeing in the shower? Pssst… don’t let my wife see this comment
We have both inverters & generators in most houses in Delhi and some new societies that are bring built now also have electricity and water backup. That’s a real good idea and it’s catching on real quick with people here. Plus some old houses like mine have their own water supply apart from the government water.
Oh and I just remembered that the residents of one residential area in New Delhi got together and pooled money and got their own water supply. And that trend is catching on. When the government raised water prices in Delhi, I simply started using my own water more than the government water to balance out the monthly expense.
Akshay, this water pipeline collapse is a really serious matter. Am just watching the news reports now. Traffic jams up to Vikroli are expected through the night, hardly any trains running on the central line, people camping out in the streets.
It’s amazing what happens in this city when an incident interrupts the normal flow of things. One really realises just how many people are in this city and how much the city relies on everything running smoothly for its functionality. Not to mention, the water supply in the Thane region will be interrupted as well.
WOW that is something else hope no one was hurt real bad in that accident. I thought it was bad here with them raising the price of our water, that is another thing that I have never gotten how can you put price on something that is every where? Somdays I wish that we had few wells so that we would have have to use the towns water supply and would not have to pay the price. about the 5 minutes showers I would still have soap bubbles in my hair all thought Nana and I don’t take that long when we get shower we did time my dad he takes almost 15-30 minutes to get shower and people thing us woman are bad… LOL
A couple of people were killed, including the train driver. Sadly he couldn’t be rescued for a number of hours, because no one had the appropriate equipment. He eventually died.
Mumbai needs more bore water wells, amongst other things. There’s also a huge problem of water theft from pipes here.
15-30 minutes is a long shower!!!
I would think that the owner of the apartment complex should be resposible for non stop electricity and water, such as is here in Gurgaon and many other places in NCR too. Why doesn’t that happen in apartment complexes in Mumbai? Most apartment complex owners who rent out the apartments have arrangements for 24 hour water and electricty back up. (in NCR regions)
It must be to do with that discrepancy re: what should happen in India versus what actually happens in India.
The landlord considers that the overhead storage tank in our apartment is adequate back up for the water (since we are the only apartment in the complex to have such a facility). Just wish the water would come out of it in useful places like the shower and toilet. Fortunately, we don’t have an electricity problem in this part of Mumbai. Now, that is something I don’t think I could cope with!
You are right about the borewells.
Many apartment complexes in many Indian cities have their own borewell, and 24-hour water-supply is enjoyed by such apartments.
Many water-dowsers are indeed able to detect the presence of the underground water-sources, however sceptical we might be.
However, note that any such borewell has to be carefully drilled on a very-carefully-selected site, such that the borewell does not cause structural weakening of the foundations of any buildings in the vicinity of the borewell.
In cities like Chennai, the madatory rainwater harvesting has helped raise the water-table in the city, making borewells feasible.
hehehe…..
Why do you think this is a mystery? The reason is simple: Indian bureaucracy is one of the most inefficient and corrupt in the world. We are the masters of mismanagement. You can only expect bloated promises by the municipal officials on this. And to add to that people get accustomed to all this and there is always a status-quo on such issues.
Just an interesting fact:
India has 12% of its land in water bodies whereas countries like Germany etc only have 2% percent land in water bodies. I dont get why India even has a water crisis.
Even with this water crisis, I am sure there must of thousands of pipes which must be leaking like hell but no one will care.
Did you hear anyone saying “Sab chalta hai yaar” even on this… I would be surprised if you didnt….
Monika has summed it up just perfectly. We truly are the masters of mis management. However, we are much better than most mid eastern countries and African nations though.
I can only hope & keep my fingers crossed that the city planners turn over a new leaf before the commonwealth games in October 2010. Even the city Doha in Qatar turned over a new leaf in 2006 when they hosted th commonwealth games. Keep your fingers crossed people.
Monika, even I have started saying “sab chalta hai”.
Leaking pipes, water theft. It’s constantly in the news papers. 
I just have to start letting the issue go otherwise I feel so frustrated that no one can seem to do a darn thing about it.
So, after a week of water, the supply is gone again!! Just like that. Sab chalta hai is becoming my mantra!!!