Water has become a mirage for the Narmada Project oustees rehabilitated here from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, who agreed to give up their irrigated farms back home to ensure that the Sardar Sarovar Dam project became the lifeline of the water-starved people of Gujarat. Just 25 kilometres from Vadodara, a Narmada rehabilitation site on the outskirts of Ambav village is now home to 40-odd families of Narmada oustees hailing from Chimankhedi village of Maharashtra since 1995. But, Khalojia Vasava, 45, who heads the group of families as their sarpanch, still remembers how he used to swim daily in the river in his native village. "Here, I can't even take a proper bath because of saline water. We somehow manage our daily chores and the Nigam (SSNL) provides drinking water through tankers. But we have no means to irrigate the land that was given to us as compensation," says Vasava, while adding that despite owning five-acre plot of land, he can barely manage to cultivate two quintals of