Agra: Some 30 years ago, on May 21, 1993, more than 200 people were hospitalized and 21 dead, after drinking contaminated municipal tap water, in the Ghatiya, Khateek Pada, and Mandi Sayeed Khan areas of Agra. Sadly no one was punished and no lessons were learnt, despite the hue and cry.

Politicians of all colours including the then Uttar Pradesh Governor Moti Lal Vora, visited the city to console the bereaved families and promised jobs to members of the victims’ families.

For many years the family members and residents of these areas observed a Black Day, demanding action and compensation from the government, but hope deserted them, and the tragedy is virtually forgotten now. A local leader said people feel cheated. "Many families lost their breadwinners and no help ever came to the survivors of the grim tragedy.”

The ‘Smart City’ or the city of monuments continues to face an acute water crisis. Two million people of Agra are neither satisfied with the quantity nor the quality of water supplied by the two water works. Though the city now gets the bulk of its water supply from the Ganga Jal pipeline from a canal in Bulandshahar district, the demand keeps soaring as new colonies have come up on the periphery of the city. Agra gets 140 cusecs of Ganga Jal from the pipeline, and 10 cusecs are diverted to Mathura. The two waterworks, 144 MLD capacity at Sikandra and 100 MLD capacity at Jeoni Mandi treat the Ganga Jal and supply to the city.

Till a few years ago, Agra was dependent on the Yamuna which sadly has been reduced to a sewage canal, runs dry for most of the year and what flows down is the sewer, domestic waste, and effluents from upstream cities including Delhi.

The state government agencies have failed to construct the barrage on the Yamuna, downstream of the Taj Mahal, although the funds were cleared long ago. The proposed pipeline from the Chambal River hangs fire just 50 km away. The desilting of the Yamuna and its half-a-dozen tributaries in the Agra district has not been taken up despite the Supreme Court directive. “We don’t understand why the administration is dragging its feet on these issues.” wondered Devashish Bhattacharya of the River Connect Campaign.

Whenever there is a crisis the Water Works officials raise their hands in utter desperation and helplessness saying there is no fresh water available in the river Yamuna which once was the lifeline of the city. "For all practical purposes, Yamuna is dead downstream of Okhla barrage."

A dry Yamuna is a threat both to humans and stone monuments. "It is necessary to keep Yamuna full of water for the safety of historical monuments along its banks," says Rajiv Gupta of Lok Swar. Taj City's water needs have increased along with its population, but no new arrangements have been made to augment raw water supply, he added.

The story is the same each summer when the city of two million struggles for water as the mercury rises. The demand for water goes up but the supply fails to match the city’s increasing requirement for water, primarily due to the neglect of the Yamuna River.

Apart from the sorry state of river Yamuna, one reason responsible for the current crisis is the disappearance of water bodies, says Anil Sharma, president of the Agra Civil Society. A quarter century ago, there were more than 500 community ponds in the district, now only around a hundred remain, the rest have been gobbled by land sharks and colonizers, but the state government has not shown any concern, Sharma adds. The tributaries of the Yamuna are in an equally sorry state, filled with mud and sludge. We have been demanding a check dam to store rainwater in the Utangan River, but no one bothers, say the Civil Society members.

The locals curse the elected representatives for their collective failure to address water shortages, making the scorching heat unbearable. Right now the temperature is hovering around 45 degrees Celsius.

Perhaps the authorities are waiting for yet another tragedy to wake up. They don’t realize that clean drinking water and air are basic human rights in any civilized society.