To the rest of the city mounds of uncleared garbage on the streets may be a new experience, but in the Ejipura slum the people have become accustomed to living with them. Half-clothed, barefoot children play around the stinking piles of rubbish surrounded by flies and dogs and the narrow drains choking with all kinds of waste.
The people from the economically weaker sections, who were allotted quarters here, have been living in this hell with poor sanitation and almost no water supply, opposite the National Games Village, for over two decades now.
The deplorable living conditions are, however, not confined to this slum alone, but are found in all the 500 odd slums across Bengaluru.
Water and sanitation
One borewell and a row of 10 toilets cater to about 1,512 households in the Ejipura slum. A resident, Lingaraju, reveals that although there are four borewells in all, only one is in working condition. “We use this borewell water for washing and cleaning and walk around 4 kms to get Cauvery water for drinking. The borewell that works is near the toilets and so we are not sure whether it is contaminated. No one comes to check,” he says.
And while in the past the slum had five rows of 10 toilets each, now only one row of 10 is in working order. “We have complained several times to the corporator but nothing has been done. Afraid that we could lose the row of toilets still working, we are collecting Rs 2 for their use from residents towards their maintenance,” explains Lingaraju.
But not everyone can afford the pay and use toilets. Savita, a housewife, says she cannot pay `2 each time her three children want to use the toilet and so they simply use the drain nearby to attend nature’s call.
Healthcare
With hygiene poor in the slum, children regularly come down with symptomatic dengue, typhoid, gastroentrites, rashes and skin infections. Says Savithamma, 48, “There are at least two or three children in almost every household here. We really don’t know whether it is the water or the insects and flies, but most of the children regularly fall ill and need to be taken to nearby Viveknagar or Adugodi health centre to be treated for fever, vomiting and so on.”
The problems increase when the monsoon sets in as the slum gets flooded, forcing
people to wade through pools of stagnant water.” Sometimes we cannot sleep as the mosquitoes come out in huge number with the rain and most people come down with fever and rashes,” rues Savithamma.
Garbage
Ask anyone about waste segregation here, and you are met with stares of incomprehension.
Pasha, 48, who lives in the slum, says the garbage is sometimes not cleared for months. “The problem worsens when it rains as water collects in the solid waste and plastics begin to choke the drains, leaving them smelling and overflowing. When we complain to the BBMP, they come to clear them, but the problem recurs in no time. If we try to clean our surroundings, our neighbors continue to throw garbage clogging the drains,” he laments.