How to live in a city where there is no drinking water
There has been a problem with drinking water in India for a long time. Delhi even has a special government body (The Delhi Jal Board) responsible for the supply of water in this region. Despite all attempts to stabilize the situation, The Delhi Jal Board recently sent a request to check the supplied water — whether the level of ammonia in it is too high, making the water undrinkable and dangerous.
The government is trying to fix the problem in the capital by increasing the amount of water supplied, but it is still not enough for most of the population. There is even a so-called water mafia in Delhi, which prevents the situation from being adjusted with the help of its agents.
Source: VICE
Rohit Kumar shows photos of his father Lal Bahadur and brother Rahul Hariyan.
On March 20, 2018, 60-year-old Lal Bahadur and his 19-year-old son Rahul Hariyan were seen fighting with neighbors while taking water from a cistern in north Delhi. Bahadur died immediately, his son died a month later.
Rohit Kumar: "My father and brother got into a fight over water. The situation remained exactly the same as it was on the day of his father's death. People are still fighting for water. We want a water supply from the government that would never lead to what happened in our family. We are scared when we go to get water."
Manoj Kumar: "I live in the Sanjay community. I work at the Ashoka Hotel. It takes me three to four hours to get water. People often fight with each other for water. We have to make work schedules very carefully because of this shortage. In the tourism industry, we earn most of the money in extra time and overtime, but due to lack of water, we have to skip these hours. Nothing can be done without water. We go to paid toilets to take a shower or wash clothes. Every time we pay 15 cents for it."
Ibrahim: "I lived in the Sanjay community for three years. I was an errand boy at the Taj Mansingh Hotel. We have to walk very far to take a shower. People really fight a lot when a new water tank arrives. She rarely arrives on time, we have to wait for her for two or three hours. If we don't get this water, we have to pay for private toilets."
Harsh: "There has been no water in public toilets for two months. Often we go to school without taking a shower. The toilets are always dirty, and that's why we go outside to take a shit. People are fighting, I've seen them fall and break their legs. A person starts a fight if he can't get water that day."
Archana Charan: "In the community we have to constantly fight for water. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. The situation with toilets is also terrifying. Sometimes we come home with empty buckets. This greatly affects our family, children and their schooling. Our kids are late for school, our husbands are late for work because of all this."
The barn: "I sell about 40-50 cans of filtered water in the Jamia Nagar area. My price is 30 cents per jar. I've been doing this for about four years, and about 200 more people are doing the same. We also have regular customers, they pay us within 10-15 days, sometimes for a month, and sometimes for five days."
Nikunj Garg: "I sell water here. I sell more than 200 packages for the price of 4 cents."
Keywords: Poverty | India | Drinking water