Bangalore:
At the best of times, Bangalore is a city that needs more water than it receives. And this summer, the situation has only worsened.
Much of the city's drinking water comes from the river Cauvery. But after the poor monsoon last year, the water in the Krishnarajasagara dam on the Cauvery has reached its dead storage level, which directly affects the supply of water to city. As it is, most areas in Bangalore see supply of water on alternate days, which too has now stopped in several places.
NDTV visited a high-density neighbourhood in Kammanahalli area in north Bangalore where there has been no water supply for the last two weeks.
"They used to release drinking water for half an hour or one hour, but even that is not being released now... When there is no drinking water, how can we have a bath?" said Dhanalakshmi, a homemaker, who has learnt to wash vessels with the least amount of water.
Bangalore is, indeed, thirsty. More than 8 million people need 600 cusecs of water daily but the actual amount being provided now is just 280 cusecs - a disparity that means a lot of dry taps.
But despite the scarcity, the city continues to grow forcing real estate developers to look at alternate methods to ensure the supply of water.
"All our properties have got wastewater management and waste treatment plants. We also have rain water harvesting," Irfan Razack, CMD of property developers, the Prestige Group
The newly-installed state government has already made assurances. "There will be no problem with the drinking water in Bangalore city and also Mysore and other parts of Karnataka," Karnataka Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah said.
But while it needs to rain in Cauvery's catchment area to stave off an even more parched situation, the scene on the ground is already bad enough. Dhanalakshmi and her neighbours have to buy a pot of water for Rs 2 from a household with a borewell. And the situation is the same for thousands of households across the city.