Dhobi ghats feel the heat

April 27, 2016 07:44 am | Updated 07:44 am IST - BENGALURU:

Drought woes:A few dhobi ghats in Bengaluru are limiting the load of clothes they accept to wash by not taking new clients due to shortage of water.— PHOTO: K. Murali Kumar

Drought woes:A few dhobi ghats in Bengaluru are limiting the load of clothes they accept to wash by not taking new clients due to shortage of water.— PHOTO: K. Murali Kumar

The heat is on and water is becoming a precious commodity. Though everyone is feeling the pinch, those dependent on it for eking out a livelihood are the worst hit. Washermen — or dhobis as they are more commonly known — are scrambling for alternatives to ensure that there is an adequate amount of water, without which their day-to-day routine goes for a toss.

In the dhobi ghat in Rajajinagar, three to four of them pool in to buy water from private tankers. “We need four or five tankers per day. Luckily for us, the water tanker owner is a known person … he gives us water at a reasonable rate of Rs. 450 per load,” said P. Ramanna, president of the Rajajinagar Washermen’s Association.

This ghat is home to 60 members, who wash anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 clothes each day. The borewell in the ghat has gone dry and the only other source of water is the common borewell outside the ghat.

Other dhobi ghats have different problems. The ones in Yelahanka and Vasanthnagar have wells, but only for namesake. Water levels have plummeted and sewage water has found its way into the same wells.

Children of dhobis at Vasanthnagar point to all kinds of garbage floating in the well that could have been a good source of water. Also, the stench is unbearable.

In Yelahanka too, dhobis are faced with a similar problem, and purchasing water from private tankers too has been ruled out.

“The area is small and the access to tankers limited. They refuse to come here because they don’t have pipes long enough to reach our tanks,” said Y.C. Ramesh, secretary of the Yelahanka Washermen’s Association.

“Borewell water is supplied for exactly 10 minutes because the depth is low. We fill as much as we can. We work in shifts and that solves the problem to an extent,” he said, adding that they are limiting the load of clothes they accept to wash by not taking new clients for now.

He said that they usually earn Rs. 10 for each piece of cloth they wash.

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