Residents fill their containers with drinking water from a municipal tanker in New Delhi, India, June 28, 2019. Picture taken June 28, 2019.
Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi

NEW DELHI, INDIA — In this teeming capital city of more than 20 million people, a worsening drought is amplifying the vast inequality between India’s rich and poor.

The politicians, civil servants and corporate lobbyists who live in substantial houses and apartments in central Delhi pay very little to get limitless supplies of piped water – whether for their bathrooms, kitchens or to wash the car, dog, or spray a manicured lawn. They can do all that for as little as $10-$15 a month.

But step into one of the slum areas in the inner city, or a giant disorganized housing estate on the outskirts and there is a daily struggle to get and pay for very limited supplies of water, which is delivered by tanker rather than pipe. And the price is soaring as supplies are fast depleting.

India’s water crisis is far from even-handed – the elite in […]