Guwahati: Guwahati suffers from an acute water shortagebut it is not because there's not enough water, it's because the government hascompletely failed to create a water supply infrastructure."I've been here for more than fifteen years and I haven't seen running water," says a local.
Half a kilometre away is the massive Brahmaputra.
Abundant water but no water supply. That is because when Guwahati expanded from being a small town to a big city someone actually forgot to lay water pipes. And so today 70 per cent of Guwahati's population today does not have any supply of water.
The existing infrastructure is obsolete and almost defunct.
So people are forced to purchase water everyday from private suppliers. Or bore a well.
The government agencies tell us that a 2000 crore water supply project has been sanctioned but it will take at least five years for Guwahati to get running water on taps.