Kottayam: Around 2 pm on Sunday, an autorickshaw negotiates a downhill slope and pulls over in front of an unplastered house at Railway Colony in Puthuppally assembly constituency's Ayarkunnam grama panchayat.
Lata Vijaykumar (38) and Chandana Mari (36) alight from the rick with four buckets of washed clothes, and pay the driver Rs 80 for the one-way trip. "This is our Sunday," says Chandana Mari.
The two women travelled around 2 km to Pannagam Thodu, a tributary of Meenachil River, to do the piled-up laundry of their families.
As a solution to the water problem in the area, the Groundwater Department drilled a borewell in September 2020 and laid pipelines for the colony with six families at a cost of Rs 4 lakh. "The borewell is almost dry. We barely get two buckets of water every day," said G K Ganesh (40), another resident who works as a porotta master in a restaurant.
Outside the colony, the water crisis is more serious. There are around 80 houses on either side of Vadekeparam-Elappani Road -- a one kilometre stretch. The northern side of the road is Ward 5 (Kongandoor) and the southern side is Ward 6 (Nariveli).
"On both sides of the road, there are around 60 houses that do not have adequate water. Not just drinking water," said Sunil T G (53), who drives commercial vehicles for a living, and long-time resident of Ward 6.
But none of the candidates contesting in the byelection has come here to seek votes, he said. "Nor have TV channels covering the elections round-the-clock," said his wife Sabitha.
'Wait till 2026 for water'
Opposite Sunil's house lives Binu M S, an ardent home gardener, in Ward 5. Binu farmed vegetables in the little space around her small house.
"We used to buy only potatoes and onions. Now with no water or rain, my vegetable garden is dead," she said, pointing to the dried vines of ivy gourds.
Binu said she had already bought 4,000 litres of water from tanker trucks, twice. "And it's only August," she said. She raised the issue of water with the Kongandoor member Jiji Nakamattom. "He asked us to wait till 2026," she said.
Life Mission houses with no water
The tanker trucks charge Rs 900 for 4,000 litres. "Last year I spent Rs 15,000 on buying water. I have written it down," said Raseena, a homemaker and Binu's neighbour.
Raseena and her husband Sunil C P, an autorickshaw driver, moved to the area after building a 455 sq ft house on a 3.5-cent plot under Life Mission, the government's housing scheme. Though the government gave the couple Rs 2 lakh to buy the plot and Rs 4 lakh to build the house, they had to take loans to raise the rest of the money. Around five Life Mission houses have come up in the area. More are being built.
All the families here have dug wells. The wells in the area have depths between 13.5m to 20.5m. According to the Union Ministry of Environment's Environmental Information System (ENVIS), the average depth of wells in Kerala ranges between 10m to 15m. "We use our wells as tanks to fill water we buy," said Raseena.
Elderly couple's plight
But not every family in the area can afford to buy water. Babu K C (64), a rubber tapper, suffered a stroke, making him fully dependent on his wife Saramma (62).
The couple live in a 350 sq ft house built by their parish. They depend on the elderly pension of Rs 1,600 each they get from the government. She cannot afford to buy water like her neighbours, who are slightly well off.
Saramma's neighbour Mahindran allows her to take three pots of water every day from the water he buys.
Saramma said she had approached the panchayat to sanction her some money to build a wood stove kitchen. "But the panchayat has rejected it saying I am not eligible," she said.
Now, she has covered her woodstove with a tarpaulin that helps her collect rainwater, too. If only it rained.
Paint buckets and black tanks
Residents of the area take water tanks on rent and collect paint buckets to store water they buy.
Shyji, a homemaker and wife of a pastor, said she has only two tanks of 500 litres and 300 litres. "Even if I call a tanker, I can store only 800 litres," she said.
She hires an autorickshaw and goes to Pannagam Thodu stream thrice a week to wash clothes because her two children are in school.
Men who have jobs take a dip at Pannagam Thodu and wash their clothes before returning home every evening, said Sunil, the commercial vehicle driver.
"The women go (to the stream) when they get time to wash the clothes," he said.
Residents said they frequently raise this issue in the Grama Sabha meetings and also confront the panchayat. In the 20-member Ayarkunnam grama panchayat, 14 members belong to the UDF. "The panchayat could just dig a borewell for us. But they won't. We are not a priority for them," he said.
Pipeline across road but water denied to three families
Even where the panchayat members can help, they turn a blind eye to people's needs. Talking to Onmanorama, Shaji Kadappakkal (51) opened up about his family's plight.
His house sits on the edge of Ayarkunnam-Neduvellally main road at Kongandoor. Kerala government's Jalanidhi pipeline runs on the opposite side of the road. For 10 years, he has been trying to get water supply to his house.
Four years ago, Shaji and two other families gave Rs 10,000 each to the contractor for the water connection. Later they gave another Rs 3,000 each to him. "In total, we gave Rs 39,000 to the contractor for a water connection from a pipeline running across the road," he said.
To date, he has not got a water supply.
"There is a culvert near my house. The contractor can draw the pipeline from there but he won't," said Shaji.
He appealed to the panchayat and his panchayat member Jiji Nakamattom. "But nobody cares," he said.
Every day, Shaji and his wife Mini (50) go to their neighbour K V Joseph's house, 75m away, to bring water home.
