Mar 16, 2024 - 06:45
By edition.cnn.com

India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ is running dry as residents urged to take fewer showers and use disposable cutlery

Bengaluru, India CNN —

The water tanker arrives once every two weeks, its 1,000 liters expected to serve hundreds of people in this suburb of India’s most high-tech metropolis, where women carrying empty buckets come clamoring to quench their thirst.

The sight is not unusual says Susheela, a resident of the suburb of Bandepalya, who goes by one name and needs the water for her family of four. “Sometimes fights break out, there is a lot of arguing,” she said. “But what do we do? We need water. We are desperate.”

Susheela’s taps – like millions of others – in the southern city of Bengaluru have run dry and the borewells that supply water to her household are empty.

The tech hub, known as India’s “Silicon Valley” and home to giant multinationals like Infosys and Wipro, requires about 2 billion liters (528 million gallons) of water for its nearly 14 million residents every day. But those numbers dwindled to alarming levels, falling about 50% over the past week, according to the chairman of the city’s water supply and sewage board, V. Ram Prasat Manohar.

Residents have been advised to use water sparingly – encouraged to bathe on alternate days, use disposable cutlery, and limit washing clothes and utensils.

It’s a crisis that has been described as dire by those who live in Bengaluru – and experts warn it is only going to get worse as mercury levels climb in the lead up to summer.

“I have been warning about this for over a decade,” said climate scientist T.V. Ramachandra, from the Centre for Ecological Sciences. “It’s a culmination of unplanned urban growth, rapid deforestation and the ongoing climate crisis – and everyone is paying the price.”