NRIs want clean water for Dharavi

Team of five American students of Indian origin has reached the slum with methods to provide access to safe drinking water

While potable water shortage is a possibility for the rest of Mumbai, it is a reality for Dharavi. Concerned about the plight of the slum dwellers, five NRIs from the US have come down to the city to help Dharavi with a project called Waterwalla to provide it with safe drinking water.
During their two-week stay, they will collect water samples to check for harmful substances, and distribute sachets of calcium hypochlorite and iron sulphate to purify water.
The team — comprising Anshu Vaish, Neil Parekh, Darain Kurti and Nehal Doshi from Brown University, and Soaib Grewal from the Rhode Island School of Design — reached Mumbai on Monday. Their first visit to Dharavi will be on Wednesday, and they will be aided by Equinox — a Prabhadevi-based water testing laboratory.
"Our objective is to promote water purification and create access to affordable and clean drinking water for Dharavi residents. We also intend to improve the educational levels of the slum dwellers with our focus being on children," said Vaish, who leads the project.
"This is the first phase, where we have to investigate the health status of the slum dwellers along with quality assessment of water in different areas. Our aim is to promote easy access to water purification technology. We have brought 250 sachets, and if they yield good results, we will provide more at a nominal charge of Rs2 or Rs4 per sachet."
Explaining why they chose Dharavi, Parekh said: "We chose Dharavi because we are of Indian-origin and it's a well-known fact that Dharavi is one of the biggest slums in Asia. We chose this project because we know that lack of access to safe drinking water results in millions of deaths annually across the globe, especially in developing countries like India. The majority of deaths are from water-related diseases in children.
"Our project aims to improve the health of local residents by creating self-sustaining micro-businesses that would provide tailored solutions, including access to clean water or access to affordable water-cleaning technologies."
Ashwin Bhadri, head, businesses relations, Equinox, said: "Three weeks back, Waterwalla members contacted us via email seeking help to test water samples. Once we went through their project, we immediately decided to join them in this noble cause. We will check 50 water samples on 18 parameters for free, though we charge Rs2,000 per sample."
Raju Korde, president, Dharavi Bachao Samiti, is happy that the initiative will help the common man. "In the last few months, more than 60% of the homes in Dharavi have been receiving dirty water. The old pipelines, which supply water, are responsible for the contamination. People have been falling ill," said Korde, who has lived in Dharavi for the past 42 years.