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  • 6/28/2024
Residents in part of India’s capital are scrambling for water with a months-long heat wave leaving some taps running dry. In some of Delhi’s poorest neighbourhoods, residents are being forced to the black market where the so-called ‘Water Tanker Mafia’ are cashing in.

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00:00In the Indian capital, residents of Sanjay camp are grappling with an acute water shortage.
00:09Empty containers line the street as people living in the congested settlement wait for
00:14a water tanker to arrive.
00:18Getting hold of the water is a daily and sometimes dangerous ordeal.
00:23Fights break out there.
00:24Whoever can take water by force takes it.
00:27Those who are weak get pushed back.
00:30People have been queuing here for hours, waiting for this tanker to bring drinking water.
00:34But even after all this trouble, there is no guarantee they will get enough clean water.
00:43Sometimes it comes out a little yellow.
00:45Sometimes it's a bit muddy.
00:47Sometimes it smells bad.
00:48Tens of millions of India's 1.4 billion people lack running water, made worse by a months
00:54long heatwave.
00:55The heat here is severe.
00:59We can't send the children outside.
01:01If we go out to work one day, we have to stay home the next two, because people start feeling
01:07dizzy or faint.
01:09Many people are being forced to buy water on the black market from private contractors,
01:13known as the water tanker mafia.
01:16Private tankers and sometimes even hijacked Delhi-Jalwo tankers, which are filled up during
01:21off-time hours from locations unknown.
01:25And then that water is supplied at exorbitant prices to people who need it.
01:29The Supreme Court this month rebuked the Delhi government for not doing enough to deal with
01:33the problem.
01:34Many of Delhi's residents, especially its poorest, are paying the price for a resource
01:39that's meant to be available for all.

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