Urban Demand Drives Water Scarcity in Rural India
Growing demand for water in India's most populous megacity, Mumbai, has left nearby rural towns and villages with depleted supplies. Scientist and water rights advocates say climate change is driving longer periods of extreme heat and drought, and the country's rural communities are the most vulnerable.
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00:00This well in rural western India is the main water source for dozens of families.
00:06Navin Wadi is a small village about 100 kilometers from Mumbai,
00:10but it's worlds away from the fast-paced streets of India's financial capital.
00:14The area has major reservoirs that supply most of Mumbai's water,
00:17but local villagers here say they don't see a single drop.
00:31The government doesn't pay attention to the rich and the poor.
00:36How can we improve if we continue to live like this?
00:38Locals are forced to fetch water in pots and make multiple trips to the well every day.
00:43For many villagers, getting water takes up much of their time.
00:55Months of erratic rainfall and extreme heat
00:58have left Navin Wadi with a depleted water supply.
01:01Recently, tankers filled with river water have been coming to replenish the region's wells.
01:06Villagers say the rivers are polluted, but they have no choice but to take it.
01:11If we don't take the polluted water, we don't get water.
01:14We take the polluted water and put medicine in it.
01:19But we still drink it.
01:23Water rights campaigners say government infrastructure projects
01:26have never taken rural communities like Navin Wadi into account.
01:30Areas around Mumbai metro region, there's multiple dams, all built in tribal areas.
01:37It's not only that the tribal people not only not get any benefit,
01:41all the benefits goes to the cities,
01:43but it's the tribal people who suffer when these dams are built
01:46in terms of submergence, in terms of impact,
01:49in terms of deprivation from forests and natural resources,
01:52and then they don't get benefit.
01:54Advocates say most villages in the region rely on local bodies of water,
01:58which are especially vulnerable to the impacts of megadam projects
02:01and unusual weather patterns fueled by climate change.
02:04And scientists say that rapid urbanization,
02:06especially in cities like Mumbai, will only worsen the problem.
02:10Urbanization solely and singularly is 60 percent responsible
02:15for the kind of climate change impacts that are happening,
02:19especially heat waves that are happening in India.
02:22Government officials both at the state level and in Delhi
02:25have said they would address the water scarcity problem in drought-prone regions.
02:29But as climate change continues to dry up rural wells,
02:32villagers here in Navinwadi say they are still waiting on the government
02:35to deliver on their promises.
02:37Alex Chen and Wesley Lewis for Taiwan Plus.