While residents of Bhayander cry foul against the powerful tanker lobby and its nexus with local politicians for allegedly creating an artificial water scarcity, a two-year-old report prepared by the Senior Geologist of Ground Water Survey and Development Agency, Thane, has highlighted the immense ecological damage done to the fragile ecology of the area by the daily tapping of ground water.

``More than 350 tankers daily make at least five to six rounds to supply water to Bhayander. People pay a hefty price for the 10,000 litres of water each tanker carries, but nobody bothers to ask where these tankers are filled,'' said Milan Mhatre, former MBMC councillor, who has waged a war against the tanker lobby.

The tankers are filled for as cheap as Rs 50 and sold to residents of MiraRoad and Bhayander for nearly 100 to 300 times that amount. The 31 million gallons of water supplied per day to the area is obviously not enough. A large quantity of water is also lost due to a faulty and old distribution system and thousands of illegal water connections given freely by politicians and authorities in the area.

However, authorities are yet to take cognisance of the report, and tankers continue to freely collect water from the area.

The report undertaken to study the extent of damage caused by the extensive tapping of ground water at Uttan and Dongri villages near the Mira-Bhayandar area reveals tapping of water from these island villages has resulted in irreparable disturbance in water table and also increased salinity of the wells and borewells from which the water is drawn.

``While the water level used to be at least four to six metres, it has decreased by six to eight metres and during mid-summers, all wells go dry. Due to drop in water level, there's a danger of the sea water beingattracted underground and mixing with ground water. This process is irreversible. The only way further damage can be prevented is by stopping all water-tapping activities for commercial use,'' the report stated.

``The extent and height of water-retention layer of sweet water in the area is limited, imposing restrictions on its extraction... If indiscriminate exploitation continues, the ground water condition may get disturbed to the extent of ruling out any future improvement. Already due to increased salinity of the region, a new well will have to be dug to a depth of 30 metres to get potable ground water. Just five metres further down, and the well would be rendered useless as the ground water will get mixed with saline sea water,'' the report revealed.

The report was prepared under directions of the Thane collector who had received several complaints from the Nagri Hakk Sangharsh Samiti, a local social welfare organisation, about misuse of natural water reserves.

The hilly villages, favourite spotsof tanker operators, are situated on the western side of Mira-Bhayander Municipal Council's jurisdiction on the island of Dharavi, earlier known as North Salsette Dharavi.

The report recommended that removal of water from the six bore wells in Uttan and Dongri should be stopped immediately, and owners of the wells should also stop supplying water to tanker operators.

``Unless the MBMC, along with adequate help of Thane and Mumbai Municipal Corporations and the government find a solution to the water problem, the tanker operators will continue to harm the ecology,'' Mhatre lamented.