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As Cities Run Low on Water, India Searches for Answers

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - As reservoirs in India's sixth largest city, Chennai,
   almost went dry this week, affluent residents spent more money to buy
   the precious resource being ferried in by trucks from outside the city,
   poorer ones waited for hours in the scorching heat for erratic
   government supplies, some restaurants closed, and many offices
   curtailed working hours.

   While the southern city faces chronic water shortages, the situation
   has reached a crisis point this summer. In Subhra Banerjee's upmarket
   apartment complex, residents are using disposable plates, restricting
   baths and throwing wastewater in toilets to minimize consumption. But
   some days can be really bad. "We are sometimes totally out of stock. We
   are quite panicky," he says.
   The situation is not much better in sprawling low-income neighborhoods
   in the Indian capital. The day begins with a scramble for water, but it
   is not easy to get hold of a few buckets. As a tanker rolls in with the
   critical resource, many get elbowed and pushed in the mad rush to fill
   containers, tempers get frayed and some children even squeeze under the
   truck to salvage a few drops from leaking pipes.
   "Those who can push, fill the water -- others cannot," says Ayesha
   Khatun, a resident of a slum in New Delhi. "For three days I am filling
   my container with whatever is spilled by others."

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