In the poem ‘Water’, the speaker recalls the ‘role’ played by water as an agent of social change. Incidentally, she uses the context of the poem to highlight the travails and tribulations suffered by the people in wadas, with particular reference to the practice of untouchability in Andhra Pradesh.

In the first five stanzas, she mentions the various instances of the practice of untouchability witnessed by ‘water’. She states that ‘water’ knows that ‘untouchability’ never disappears because the quarrel over allowing the Dalits to collect water from a village tank or pond between the upper caste people and the Dalits, has been smouldering for several generations.

The speaker cites a biblical incident in which Jesus, the Jew, goes to a Samaria woman, in a town called Sychar, and asks the woman for a drink. The Samaria woman belongs to an inferior race and Jesus, the Jew belongs to a superior race. Here the speaker intends to highlight the fact that ‘water’ is essential to all, be it a Samaria woman or Jesus the Jew. The idea is reiterated in the next two lines. Even among the untouchables, there were sub-castes. ‘Leather’ refers to cobblers and the ‘spool’ refers to weavers. The speaker means to say whether one is a cobbler or a weaver both of them need water.

She next mentions the agony of the ‘Panchama’, considered an untouchable and hence not allowed to draw water from a public well. It is unfortunate that he has to wait near a well until a shudra arrives to give him water.

The speaker mentions the case of a Wada girl (an untouchable) who has to receive water poured by someone from a distance and from a higher level. On such occasions, some water is bound to fall on the body of the girl. The girl has to suffer this humiliating act for the sake of water.

Lastly, the speaker mentions the courageous act of Karamchedu Suvartamma who opposed the Kamma landlords when they were about to beat up a Dalit boy for asking them not to wash dirty buckets in the drinking water tank in Madigapalle. This act of lifting the vessel in self-defence later resulted in a ghastly attack by the upper caste people on the Dalits.