In Alirajpur, it’s a long walk to the water

The sun has set over the Vindhya hills, and the birds have returned to the forest. The time is right for Dama Sastiya to begin his journey. From his home in the village of Sugat, this farmer walks a kilometre down a rocky path to a spring. He will spend the entire night – filling water pots here, and returning in the morning. “The spring releases more water at night,” explains 50-year-old Dama.

One or two springs cannot fulfil the water requirement of the entire village with a population of 534 (Census 2011). From early morning, inhabitants of Sugat, along with their water cans and donkeys, climb down the hill to the Narmada to bathe and fetch water. The process is repeated in the evening and the residents spend an average of three hours every day on water-related tasks including bathing, washing utensils, and collecting water. The Indian Constitution has made the right to water a part of the right to life, making this a gross violation of human rights.

The farthest house to the river is about one and a half kilometres. To fetch water, it takes the residents a little over an hour, up and down the hill. In a week, it amounts to about 15 hours of walking, as the uphill climb with filled jars takes double the time of climbing down.

Early morning, Dama’s son takes over. The younger man will bring the family’s two donkeys to load the cans of precious water for their household of eight. The donkeys, now habituated with the task, can be trusted to set off by themselves towards the house.

Fifteen years ago, water was not a problem for this and other Bhilala tribals — residents of Sugat and neighbouring Jhandana village who lived on the banks of the Narmada and Hathni, a tributary of Narmada. Water was plentiful and easy to access.

All that changed when the villages were submerged because of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, built on the Narmada. Gates closed around 2014, submerging approximately 200 villages in Madhya Pradesh, including Sugat and Jhandana. The river took away the farmlands of the residents. Those who did not migrate out or relocate, like Dama and his family were forced to move up into the Vindhya hills where there is no water, no electricity and no proper road.

“We saw that people used donkeys in the nearby villages for carrying bricks and sand during construction,” says Dama. “That’s how we came up with the idea of rearing donkeys to fetch water.” Now, every house in Sugat has a donkey who has been trained to fetch water. Raju Solanki, a resident of Sugat explains, as soon as the owner hangs the empty jars of water, the donkey begins to walk towards the riverbank.

When they lived near the water, Dama and his family owned five acres of land. Now they have to manage with two-three acres, shared between four brothers. “We used to grow bajra [pearl millet], sorghum, maize, peanuts, urad dal [black gram], bhadi [barnyard millet], toor dal [pigeon pea],” said Dama.

They still grow the same crops and earn around Rs. 20,000 from selling soya beans and peanuts. During the harvest season, his son Naniya and his wife migrate to Gujarat to work in the fields. This fetches them another Rs. 30,000 over two months of labour work.

“We have seen our lands submerged in front of our eyes. It has been very painful,” says 59-year-old Goba Sastiya, a resident of Sugat village. It is evening, and having completed their water-related tasks, Goba and a few other men from the village have gathered on a hill top. They can see the river from their perch.

Nestled in the semi-deciduous forests of Alirajpur district, the easiest way to reach Sugat is crossing the Hathni river (a tributary of Narmada) by boat to the confluence of the river with Narmada. Residents of Sugat continue their journey on the Narmada until they reach the shore and make an uphill climb.

The Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) was set up by the Government of India in 1969, and 10 years later it recommended a resettlement and rehabilitation package which specified that every oustee and their adult sons would be given two hectares of irrigated land either in their home state or in Gujarat and they would also be provided with housing and other amenities at the resettlement site.

“It felt like a mountain had come crashing down on our heads,” says Parasmalji Karnavat, a leader at the forefront of the struggle against building huge dams on the Narmada who also worked as a bus operator. “The interim report of the NWDT in 1978 had said that they would build a dam 455 feet high. In Madhya Pradesh, 193 villages would be submerged,” he recalls. After the final award in 1979, he began the Nimar Bachao Andolan in the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh.

Goba Sastiya, a Bhilala Aadivasi’s family was displaced from their home on the banks of the river. The Narmada Control Authority’s 2020-21 report states that over 23,000 families in Madhya Pradesh have been affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project with one village being fully affected and 177 villages being partially affected.

“Around 20-25 years back, I went to Delhi with the Narmada Bachao Andolan saathi [members]. There were so many people. We went there to demand our land which had been submerged in the dam water,” adds Goba.

Goba says that his family, including five children, received only five acres of land in Gujarat as compensation and rehabilitation. “We did not receive any money,” he says, placing his stick under his chin. So Goba decided not to move. “If we go to another place to live, we will lose our community and will have to completely depend on wage labour for our survival. We don’t like to work in landlords’ farm fields,” says Goba, who continues to stay in Sugat.

He is talking to PARI as he takes his cattle to the banks. The April sun is burning above us, and Goba settles down to rest under the shade of an Anjan tree (Hardwickia binata).

On the land that they have received in Gujarat, Goba says, “someone else does the farming and gives us around 20-25 thousand [rupees] annually in return. We haven’t shifted to Gujarat because our close relatives were rehabilitated in another village which is around 20 kilometers from here. We demanded from the adhikaris [authorities] to give us farm land and a house plot in that same village.”

The community comes together when there is a wedding or some other function in the village, not just to celebrate, but also meet the need for excess water. Goba says, “the entire village comes with their donkeys to fetch water down the hill from the river Narmada. We start collecting water from the week before the function. In case water is over during the day of the function, we keep our donkeys ready to fetch more.”

The river is still the primary source of water. But it is a long walk and a dangerous one for pregnant women, as Gila Solanki, a resident of Sugat, found out. “I went to fetch water from the river when I was seven months pregnant. As I was climbing back up the hill, I tripped over. Thankfully, I was not injured.”

There are other problems as well. Because of deforestation brought on by the dam, the amount of water seeping in has decreased; springs tend to dry up gradually in the summer. This is due to excessive logging by the forest department, says Dr. Rahul Banerjee, an expert on climate change mitigation and ecosystem restoration. He adds, “because of climate [change], there are extreme weather events of high intensity rainfall in short bursts. This increases soil erosion and runoff which further diminishes ground water recharge.” (Watch one of his interviews here).

“We face a severe water problem between November and June [until the monsoons arrive],” points out the 20-year-old Gila from the Nayaka community (listed as Other Backward Classes in the state).

Men do lend a hand in fetching water. “But when they are gone for majdoori [wage labour], women have no choice but to fetch water even when they are ill,” says Raiti Solanki, Gila’s mother-in-law. Then she laughs, “we have learnt how to get up quickly if we trip and fall.”

Katiya and Sani Sastiya, residents of Sugat, migrate to Gujarat for two months a year to work in the fields. It fetches them Rs. 30,000. The rest of the year, they stay in the village, says Katiya, while Sani cooks dinner with the help of an electric torch – the only source of light up on the hill. The family have one small solar panel which lights up a single bulb and they also use it to charge their mobile phones. But the panel often malfunctions.

To help with water collection, Katiya and Sani keep four donkeys. Their three children study in a residential school for tribal students called Rani Kajal Jeevanshala, located across the river in Kakrana. When home for the holidays, they also pitch in. The family, who belong to the Bhilala community, received five acres of land in Gujarat when the dam submerged their village. The land had to be divided between three brothers and Katiya decided not to move.

Goba sums up the way the displaced residents feel, “We don’t have water, electricity and roads. Still, we prefer to live in our village because we have our land and community here.”