The first Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat may believe that the water crisis is a media creation, but the photographs below suggest otherwise.
The summer seems long and unending, and with the delayed monsoons, things are indeed looking grim.
With lakes and other water sources drying up, even metropolises like Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi are in the grip of a severe water crisis.
Reports say that firms on Chennai's IT corridor have asked their employees to work from home because of the water scarcity; in Mumbai, the lake levels are dipping alarmingly. In the national capital, the first Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat may believe that the water crisis is a media creation, but the photographs below suggest otherwise.
Who would believe that in the world's fifth fastest largest economy -- or is it third? -- and the one with the highest GDP growth, water would be at a premium, in some places even more dear than gold!
Residents fill their containers with drinking water from a municipal tanker in New Delhi. According to a report, the Delhi Jal Board is supplying 900 million gallons a day of water, against a peak demand of 1,200 MGD, resulting in a massive shortage. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
A man carries containers filled with drinking water on his cycle after fetching it from a municipal tanker in New Delhi. The worst hit are the unauthorised colonies including in Devli, Badarpur, Kanjhawala, Dwarka, Narela, Sangam Vihar, Burari, Khanpur, Bawana, Mohan Garden areas, which have very less piped water coverage. Community taps installed for these colonies either run dry for days or just have water for a couple of hours, resulting in long queues for getting even drinking water. The city has been facing acute water shortage ever since the summer kicked in, depleting the ground water in the city. The residents of other areas also complained of receiving a significant reduction in the supply water. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
Residents fill their containers with drinking water from a municipal tanker in New Delhi. As residents grapple with this shortage of water, a political blame game has begun with the Bharatiya Janata Party workers alleging that the Aam Aadmi Party government is doing nothing about the situation. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
A woman carries a container filled with drinking water after fetching it from a municipal tanker in New Delhi. Residents complain that they have to walk several kilometres in scorching heat to fill water to meet their daily needs. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
In Maharashtra, the situation is no different. The situation is so acute in the state, that the state government has now deployed the highest ever number of water tankers — 6,597 as of June 10 — to meet the drinking water needs of parched regions. This is over three times the number of tankers deployed around this time last year (1,777). Photograph: Prashant Waydande/Reuters
Women carry pitchers filled with water from an opening made to filter water next to a polluted lake in Thane. Current stock in the seven lakes suppling water to Mumbai - Upper Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Middle Vaitarna, Bhatsa, Tansa, Vehar and Tulsi - has fallen drastically. Photograph: Prashant Waydande/Reuters
With wells and handpumps running dry in the heatwave-like conditions, women are forced to walk for long distances to gather some water for their households. Photograph: Prashant Waydande/Reuters
The acute water shortage has devastated villagers’ agriculture-based livelihood. Crops have withered and died, leaving livestock starving and with little to drink. Major crops, including maize, soya, cotton, sweet lime, pulses and groundnuts -- drivers of the local economy -- have suffered. Photograph: Prashant Waydande/Reuters
