Residents of Jai Bheem Nagar slum successfully claim their right to water

The continuous efforts of Janhit Foundation combined with an international letter campaign by FIAN International have pressurized the authorities in Uttar Pradesh, India, to take steps to meet their obligations under the human right to water towards 10,000 residents of Jai Bheem Nagar slum in Meerut.

Due to the lack of access to safe drinking water the residents of Jai Bheem Nagar (JBN) have been compelled to consume water contaminated with heavy metals like chromium, cadmium, lead, iron and mercury. Provision of municipal water had been denied to the mostly Dalit population of JBN although they have a Municipal Counselor, which means that the municipality should provide for basic amenities. The slum dwellers claim that the consumption and use of the polluted drinking water has caused cases of diarrhea and skin diseases amongst the population. The contamination of the water is caused due to the discharge of hazardous effluents from chemical industrial plants, pesticides from agricultural fields and the biomedical waste from Government Medical College. The industries have neither the Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP) nor the Sewage treatment plants (STP) to control the pollutants which causes the contamination. Women suffer particularly as they have to travel far distances to fetch potable water for daily uses. Children also suffer as they are subject to recurrent water borne infections.

Since 2005 Janhit Foundation has been supporting the slum dwellers through investigating and documenting the level of contamination of water consumed by the residents of Jai Bheem Nagar and alerting the authorities. Janhit Foundation also filed a Public Interest Litigation with the Uttar Pradesh High Court in Allahabad with a prayer that the residents of Jai Bheem Nagar get safe drinking water and that their human right to water is not violated. The case is already with the court.

FIAN International launched an international urgent action in May 2006. After this intervention, the Municipal Corporation of Meerut, an agency directly responsible for controlling the development work of slums, informed Janhit Foundation, that keeping in view the efforts of Janhit Foundation and subsequently, the intervention of FIAN, a project worth INR (Indian rupees) 20 million has been sent for the approval of the State Government. The local member of the state legislative assembly of Meerut also raised a question in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly to address the issue.

Mr. Anil Rana, the director of Janhit Foundation has expressed his thanks regarding the success: “It is my earnest duty to thank FIAN who came forward and undertook their responsibility to contact the concerned officials of the government agencies and it is because of their efforts that the genuine demand of the community of Jai Bheem Nagar, which was not being fulfilled for one and half decade is met within a short span of one year.”

By now, the preliminary work has started. The site where an overhead water tank should be constructed was selected and engineers of the Municipal Corporation will be starting with the installation of the pipelines. The embassy of Japan will probably support the program financially and the work is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.