Private water tanker mafia exploiting water supply crisis in Sushant Lok

GURUGRAM: Over 1,500 households in Gurugram's Sushant Lok area have been grappling with a severe water crisis for more than a week, which is not expected to improve any time soon.

The crisis emanated after defects in the tankers at the water boosting station in the area resulted in severe shortage of water to the households.

Angry over the mismanagement of the situation, resident's claim that this is another situation where a large amount of money has been earned through illegal means by the builder–tanker mafia nexus.

Most residents claim that even though the defects in the tanker were in the knowledge of the builder, no efforts were made to improve the situation.

This is not for the first time when residents of Sushant Lok are facing a crisis in water supply. However, with the tankers not being functional in the boosting station, this time the crisis has prolonged for a much longer duration.

Even though Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has taken over the reins of supplying water to residents of Sushant Lok, it has not made any significant improvement to the situation.

Quick to cash in on the problem are the private water tanker operators, who are charging hefty amounts from the troubled residents.

The troubled residents have highlighted that many of the private tankers are charging anything between Rs 1,000-Rs 1,500 to fill up just one water tanker.

There have also been complaints that most private tankers do not fill the complete tanker, citing shortage of water as a reason.

"Today, even as many residents know that they are being fleeced by the private tanker operators, they cannot do anything because water is important to them. On various occasions, most private tankers harass residents by not coming at all and filling half the tankers and getting away with it," added Raghav Gupta, a resident of Sushant Lok, C-Block.