In Teeming India, Water Crisis Means Dry Pipes and Foul Sludge

[YankeyMCC]

This is the first of 3 articles on Inida's growing water crisis.

(snip)
NEW DELHI, Sept. 28 — The quest for water can drive a woman mad.
Ask Ritu Prasher. Every day, Mrs. Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of this capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water.
(snip)

(snip)
In the richest city in India, with the nation’s economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people like Mrs. Prasher are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the government’s astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.

The crisis, decades in the making, has grown as fast as India in recent years. A soaring population, the warp-speed sprawl of cities, and a vast and thirsty farm belt have all put new strains on a feeble, ill-kept public water and sanitation network.
(snip)

(snip)
Those issues are amplified nationwide. More than 700 million Indians, or roughly two-thirds of the population, do not have adequate sanitation. Largely for lack of clean water, 2.1 million children under the age of 5 die each year, according to the United Nations.
(snip)




Much Much More at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/asia/29water.html?ex=1317182400&en=00b3dfc3d12b7234&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss


The snips above are just from the first page. 2.1 million children! How much are we spending on Iraq? Imagine if we spent that for the simple basic thing like ensuring these 2.1 million children had the simple thing of clean water.

PS: An odd personal note. I just finished reading "River of Gods" by Ian McDonald last week. Which is about a Water War in the Indian Subcontinent. That just adds an additional dimension of dread for me.