However, Nature's curse would not have been so cruel had a clutch of local municipal councillors not connived with builders and senior state politicians to turn the hex into a money-spinner for their ill-gotten gains.

Today, the 6 lakh population comprising about 8,000 housing colonies in the MBMC limits, meet their collective requirment of 60 million litres a day (MLD) mainly from this source. The state government's Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran scheme, which draws water from the Temghar reservoir near Bhiwandi (about 45 km from Bhayander) brings in only 31 MLD (see box)

. This suffices for just 30 per cent of the population while 40 per cent depend entirely on tankers. The remaining 30 per centmake do with a combination of both.

With the reservoir also feeding the Thane Municipal Corporation (150 MLD), the Bhiwandi-Nizampura Municipal Council (30 MLD) and Gram Panchayats in the vicinity, supply from this source cannot be increased. However, councillors have actively connived with the state government so that water supply schemes devised over the years have never got off the ground.

The crippling shortage has therefore made municipal supply extremely erratic. Even residents at the receiving end of this bounty get water for only 15-30 minites a day.

Ensuring that it remains such, tanker owners have grown increasingly ruthless, raising their rates at will. Says Arjun Koli from Dongripada: ``Water pipes are regularly broken, creating artifical shortages.''

As for the exorbitant rates, each tanker, which carries 10,000 litres, costs a housing colony Rs 700-1,000 on a daily basis, Rs 1,500-1,750 on a weekly basis and ironically, as much as Rs 2,500 in times of crisis when ordered at short notice.With the average middle-class household spending about Rs 600 on water for 30 days, this washes out one-third of the monthly budget.

But the councillors' avarice is not all-encompassing. Some pockets in both townships have been spared of the debilitating scarcity, with water supply being fairly regular. But this too is motivated by votebank politics and abject greed. Says a resident in councillor Thomas D'Souza's (Cong) ward in Bhayander (W): ``Residing in the wards of councillors who enjoy a lot of clout has its advantages. That is, if you don't count the huge donations (anything bewteen Rs 501 and Rs 1,001) we have to make every Ganapati, Navratri and Shivjayanti festivals.''

The same kind of populsim has also favoured rural areas like Rai-Murwa, Murdha, Uttan and Dongri with 24-hour water supply even as the expanse along Navghar Road and B P Road is largely tanker-dependent. ``It was during the 1991 municipal elections that villagers were given a separate 5 MLD line,'' remembers Ramchandra patil, aresident of Uttan, who says even these villagers get three times as much water as other residents.

Meanwhile, with tankers fast sucking up the ground water, salinity has increased phenomenally and the borewells have begun to yield brackish water which is so hard that even soap refuses to lather, complains Kiran Alke from Hira Park along Navghar Road. Also, buildings have begun to crubmle due to the increased salinity thanks to the proximity to the sea, adds Vijayshankar Warrier, a resident of Silver Park.

But the ecological damage is far worse than is immediately apparent. Now, residents have to dig as much as 30 feet into the earth's crust to reach fresh, sweet water, against the earlier 10 feet a decade ago. ``If you are lucky, you will strike fresh water for the first few years at least,'' says Arjun Koli, a resident of Dongripada.

And if residents thought the January Bombay High Court order banning tapping of groundwater for commercial purposes would bring some relief, tanker owners are only usingit to charge more.