In a Mankhurd slum, a water revolution is under way

Before seven women in Deonar's Rafiq Nagar slum set up a water filtration centre on June 30, the concept of clean filtered water was unheard of in the place. Today, a bevy of men, women and children bustle around with pots and jars, queued up to collect their daily quota of drinking water from the purification centre 'Jal Jeevan'.

Rafiq Nagar, a cluster of about 31,000 people in 6,500 households, falls under the M East ward in Mumbai. It is among the most underdeveloped pockets in the city and abuts the Deonar dumping ground, a haven of filth and disease.

Only two months ago, three-and-a-half-year old Aasifa Mahmood died of diarrhoea here, sending shockwaves through the neighbourhood. "Aasifa's family started drinking boiled or filtered water only after their girl's death. People here are lethargic and many a times, won't take efforts to boil water," said a local, Tasneem Sayyed, 36.

The infant mortality rate in Rafiq Nagar is 100 per 1,000 live births, which means that one in every ten babies dies before turning one due to a preventable infectious disease. In Ethiopia, the corresponding figure is 68 deaths per 1,000 babies. Most adults and children in Rafiq Nagar suffer from diarrhoea, jaundice, typhoid and cholera, mostly water-borne illnesses. According to BMC data, up to 17% more children, in the age group of 1 to 5 years, died last year (949) than in 2013 (810), due to pneumonia, diarrhoea and other ailments, in Mumbai.

The self-help group does its bit to prevent disease by selling filtered water at 50 paise per litre, in transparent plastic jars of twenty litres. While the water shop is open from 8 am to 5 pm daily, in case the customer requires water after the shop is closed, she may acquire a prepaid card for the purpose. "The prepaid card is radio frequency identification enabled. It is loaded with an amount of Rs 100. The users can get their water jars, place them under the spout outside the shop, place their prepaid card in front of the scanner and twenty litres of water will automatically pour out from the spout," said Farzana Sayyed, 43, member, Muskan Bachat Ghat that runs the Jal Jeevan project.

22-year-old Hafizaullah Qasmi queues up to collect filtered drinking water at Jal Jeevan. He stays behind the newly installed water filtration plant, near Babe-Rehmat Masjid. "I prefer to collect our drinking water from the shop.

In our family, we have six children, the youngest being three years old. Tanker water is unsafe, while pipeline water goes through nullahs, and is rendered unusable. Even after boiling and manually sieving it with a cloth, there are some remnants of dirt left behind in the water. That is why children frequently fall ill. This is a safer alternative."

"Up to 200 twenty-litre bottles have been sold until now. About 50 bottles of waste water are generated after the water undergoes treating and filtration in over three stages," said Prema Bhalerao, another member, who expertly explained the scientific process. "The tanker water goes through a sand filter to remove any visible garbage, then it goes through a carbon filter to remove any oil or colour pollutants, after which it passes through an ultra-filtration block to remove micro-remnants. After that it is treated in the ultraviolet section to get rid of bacteria or any such contaminants."

The water filtration plant at Rafiq Nagar, which cost Rs12.5 lakhs, was installed through a joint effort by the NGO Apnalaya, Rotary Club and Eureka Forbes Institute of Environment. "In the coming six to nine months, we are planning to set up two more such water shops and filtration plants in the slum areas of Mankhurd and Kurla," said Sandeep Agarwala, Chairman, Rotary Foundation.

Raju Shinde, an Apnalaya employee, said, "By the month-end, each woman may start earning up to Rs 1500 a month. As they gear up to operate the plant, step-by-step, they are being trained in the water filtration process and delivery procedures."