Though this didn't happen overnight, what is amazing about the entire scenario is that not a single government agency has bothered to survey exactly what is polluting the water. Villagers, however, claim effluents produced by industries upstream of the Jambuva and Dhadhar rivers and partially treated sewage released by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation and the Dabhoi municipality is contaminating their only water-source.

That the villagers' concern -- though unsupported by any statistics -- is not entirely baseless is evident from the Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board's Rs 6 crore scheme to dig tubewells at four safe, shallow points and pump this water to the affected villages.

The GWSSB -- a body that has only corrective, not preventive powers -- surveyed the region last year to find the content of totally dissolved solids at 3,000 PPM, far beyond the permissible limit of 1,500 to 2000 PPM.

All that officials of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board -- the agency where the buck stops -- will say is that the water may have been contaminated by the partially treated sewage released in the Dhadhar and the Jambuva by the VMC. But they wouldn't know, for they haven't even collected water samples from there.

While the GWSSB has taken measures in its own way, villagers in Shahpura, Rabhipura, Fatehpura and Salad try to cope with the strange symptoms they have been experiencing on drinking water of late. Rasika Vasava of Fatehpura complains of a ``strange heavyness in the stomach'', while Mangalbhai Patanwadia of Rabhipura complains that lentils cooked in water turn black.

In Salad, says Ambalal Rohit, they have to filter well water before they can drink it. Kanubhai Rathodia explains that dirty water from the pond has contaminated the well water. And the pond itself has been polluted by waste generated in the village itself.

Salad resident Dilip Mansuri says the water quality is so poor that vessels used for boiling water turn white. Moreover, he alleges, water stored for a while even turns into a breeding ground for worms.

In Fatehpura, every second house has someone suffering from fever or waterborne diseases like diarrhoea, gastro-enteritis and typhoid. ``Water drawn from the Dhadhar is infested with large or small worms'', claims Mukesh Vasava. ``The two-year-old tubewell is close to the river, into which the Dabhoi municipality releases its sewage, so that water is unpotable too''. Raghavpura, Chikhodra Bhaliapura, Mujar Gamdi, Hetanpura, Ajitpura, Karali and Rasulpura have similar complaints. In several other villages, people have to dig up to 60 meters to access water. And even this water, GWSSB officials say, is salinated by effluent that has seeped into the sub-soil strata. A senior official warns the situation can worsen if remedial measures are not taken soon.

Elsewhere -- including Salad, Raghavpura, Shahpur, Patanveni, Sunderpura and Samsabad -- pollutants have made the soil unfit for agriculture. ``It has become hard and crop yield has fallen over the past years'', says Mansuri, though, again, he doesn't have the figures to back up his claim.

While VMC's Additional City Engineer B S Trapasia maintains he has never received any complaints about contaminated water from the southern belt, District Development Officer Anju Sharma admits a problem exists. She denies, however, that water pollution has triggered diseases.

Vadodara Urban Development Authority chairman Krishankant Shah, on the other hand, squarely holds pollution and water scarcity responsible for the problems of the region. Though the shortage can be met through a scheme, he says the pollution needs to be tackled first.

A pointer to the seriousness of the situation is the GWSSB's eagerness to extend its pipeline water scheme to 34 more villages. The State's Source Funding Committee, comprising secretaries of various government departments, however, is singing the old funds-crunch song to limit it to 18 villages.