:00:04. > :00:14.BBC News it is time for our world, we go to India, where the battle
:00:14. > :00:19.
:00:19. > :00:29.for water is threatening to tear the country apart. In India, water
:00:29. > :00:33.is sacred. Its rivers are revealed as bestowing blessings. But now
:00:33. > :00:39.they are polluted, wells are running dry, conflicts are breaking
:00:39. > :00:43.out. The battle for water is rocking this vast country. We get
:00:44. > :00:47.adequate rain across most parts of the country. The challenges of
:00:47. > :00:54.managing the water in the way that actually reaches the people who
:00:54. > :01:01.really need it. India's water table is steadily falling year by year,
:01:01. > :01:06.driving whole villages deeper into poverty. In overcrowded cities,
:01:06. > :01:12.water is now so precious it has spawned a thriving black market as
:01:12. > :01:15.clashes break out between those with water and those with first.
:01:15. > :01:25.The fight for water is a fight which will be fought in every
:01:25. > :01:25.
:01:25. > :02:21.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 55 seconds
:02:21. > :02:27.street in every town, and it's She grew up here in one of India's
:02:27. > :02:32.most holy places. She renounced the world, devoting herself to Hinduism.
:02:32. > :02:42.But today she is speaking out, part of a fierce religious lobby calling
:02:42. > :02:55.
:02:55. > :03:01.on the government to protect the This is now one of the most
:03:01. > :03:07.polluted rivers in the world. Hindus still flock to these waters
:03:07. > :03:11.2 bay leaves, wash their clothes, and cremate their dead. But rubbish
:03:11. > :03:17.is on the banks, and every day millions of litres of sewage flow
:03:17. > :03:22.into the Ganges and its tributaries, most of it untreated. Even the flow
:03:22. > :03:32.of the river is being stunted. Large dams diverting water to
:03:32. > :03:45.
:03:45. > :03:49.India's cities have reduced the She stays optimistic. But in the
:03:49. > :03:54.past, government promises to clean up the Ganges have made little
:03:54. > :04:00.difference to the decline of these holy waters. The River Ganges is
:04:00. > :04:04.central to Indian life, and it has been for centuries. But now its
:04:04. > :04:09.health is under threat in a way it never has been before. That's a
:04:09. > :04:19.powerful symbol of a much greater water crisis which is gripping the
:04:19. > :04:21.
:04:21. > :04:26.The north-western state of Rajasthan has long been semi-desert.
:04:26. > :04:31.For centuries villagers here found their own solutions, digging wells
:04:31. > :04:36.and storing water. But in the last five-ten years, Wells and hand
:04:36. > :04:46.pumps have started to run dry. The water table is falling rapidly, in
:04:46. > :04:48.
:04:48. > :04:52.places by more than a metre every In this village, they have used the
:04:52. > :05:02.same well for generations. But it's almost exhausted, and the deeper
:05:02. > :05:08.
:05:08. > :05:12.they dig for water, the worse the The wells in some villages still
:05:12. > :05:17.have some water, but the villagers here say that the level of water
:05:17. > :05:27.has fallen dramatically in recent years. We are having to lower this
:05:27. > :05:35.
:05:35. > :05:40.bucket at least 20 metres to try to The lady is saying that when the
:05:40. > :05:48.water finally comes it is very bad quality. The villagers say it is so
:05:48. > :05:53.that they think it is making them ill. -- so bad. The elderly now
:05:53. > :05:57.have a new sickness, a crippling bone disease. They suspect it is
:05:57. > :06:07.fluorosis, a growing problem in India, caused by water extracted
:06:07. > :06:07.
:06:07. > :06:13.from too deep in the ground with too much natural fluoride. In other
:06:13. > :06:18.villages near by, there's no water left at all. They depend entirely
:06:18. > :06:27.on tankers driving in water from outside. It's big business. They
:06:27. > :06:32.take it in turns to pay, spending a 5th of their income just on water.
:06:32. > :06:36.Water is so scarce now, they can't afford to irrigate the fields. So
:06:36. > :06:41.they've gone down to one harvest a year in the rainy season. The rest
:06:41. > :06:46.of the time the fields lie barren, and all this is pushing them
:06:46. > :06:51.further into poverty. This water crisis is fuelling migration from
:06:51. > :06:56.the villages to slums in the big cities. It's one of the main
:06:56. > :07:06.reasons people leave. But what a find in their new homes is all too
:07:06. > :07:13.
:07:13. > :07:17.A government tanker outside a slum in the capital, Delhi. Its arrival
:07:17. > :07:27.sparks a desperate scramble for water in blistering heat. It's
:07:27. > :07:28.
:07:28. > :07:33.every man for himself. And every It's their only source of clean
:07:33. > :07:41.water. No one knows for sure when the next one will come, so the
:07:41. > :07:45.whole tanker emptys in less than ten minutes. And in the chaos far
:07:45. > :07:49.too much is simply wasted. For the average family living in a slum
:07:49. > :07:55.like this in Delhi, what are the biggest problems they face in terms
:07:55. > :08:00.of water? They don't have any plants... This woman runs a small
:08:00. > :08:05.charity called Force. She knows too well how scarce the water is and
:08:05. > :08:10.how poorly managed it is. Water is piped under the slum to more
:08:10. > :08:16.affluent districts, where they can be poured dig down to those pipes
:08:16. > :08:23.and tap into them illegally -- the poor. They have created a system to
:08:23. > :08:28.take water. They create the leaks. This is the source of contamination.
:08:28. > :08:33.This is treated waste water with no pathogens, nothing. But when you
:08:33. > :08:37.open up the pipeline like this, all of this contaminated water gets
:08:37. > :08:47.into the pipeline. It is bad for them but it's bad for everybody
:08:47. > :08:48.
:08:48. > :08:53.down the line. Water is so precious it spawned a vicious black market.
:08:53. > :08:58.It is illegal of course and controlled by armed men. This is
:08:58. > :09:02.supposed to be a free public facility, a ball well put in by the
:09:02. > :09:07.government to provide poor-quality water for toilets. But local
:09:07. > :09:13.racketeers have taken control. They sell this as drinking water. This
:09:13. > :09:17.is actually a well-managed system, commercially operated. Illegal?
:09:17. > :09:21.Completely illegal. Each pipeline leaves either to one house or a
:09:21. > :09:26.cluster of houses, all of which have agreed on a common time for
:09:26. > :09:29.which they will take water. The person who manages this will switch
:09:29. > :09:33.this on for 15 minutes so that household will get water for 15
:09:33. > :09:39.minutes, then he switches it off and switches somebody else's on.
:09:39. > :09:44.Depending on how much money you pay, the time for which you get water is
:09:44. > :09:48.how it is fixed. In a way this works, but it must also give the
:09:48. > :09:53.people in charge a lot of power. If they fall out with you they can
:09:53. > :09:59.switch off your water. Absolutely. We work with the women in this area
:09:59. > :10:03.and we face this problem. Often the man can threaten the woman if they
:10:04. > :10:08.go against their decisions. What water
:10:08. > :10:13.water supplied free, yet the people are having to pay for it? Not only
:10:13. > :10:17.do they make enough money to pay salary of 4000 rupees to one person,
:10:17. > :10:24.in addition they have a bank account in which they keep the
:10:24. > :10:28.profits. This is all shared between that set of two or three people.
:10:28. > :10:32.She left her village in Rajasthan because of the lack of water. Here
:10:32. > :10:38.in the Delhi slums, she buys it through the same black market
:10:38. > :10:48.system. They get water every third day, she says. Pipes to their home
:10:48. > :10:56.
:10:56. > :11:00.And the children sometimes have stomach problems, she told me. Then
:11:00. > :11:07.they boil the water for a while. She added, what else can you expect
:11:07. > :11:12.in a place like this? About half of Delhi's rapidly expanding
:11:12. > :11:17.population is poor. As they struggle to get enough water to
:11:18. > :11:23.meet their basic daily needs, the rich by contrast have plenty. On
:11:23. > :11:26.average, they use ten times as much water per person per day. That
:11:26. > :11:34.situation where the haves and have- nots are living in close proximity
:11:34. > :11:40.in the same city is causing growing social tensions. Most everyone
:11:40. > :11:47.speaks of conflict over water. Even this woman who works in the slums
:11:47. > :11:54.is anxious about how much she has compared to others. We have these
:11:54. > :11:59.storage tanks on the rooftop. And there are another four on the
:11:59. > :12:03.ground. Are they usually full? They are. Until a few years back, we did
:12:03. > :12:13.not get enough water. So people would be fighting in the afternoon
:12:13. > :12:13.
:12:13. > :12:19.for the extra water. I mean actual street fights for water. That was
:12:19. > :12:23.happening all the time. This was on every street of every town. It is
:12:23. > :12:28.already happening. It happens when a tanker comes here and there are
:12:28. > :12:31.100 people climbing on top of the tanker. It is happening in front of
:12:31. > :12:41.you. When water comes in the morning and there is someone
:12:41. > :12:44.
:12:44. > :12:49.fighting with his neighbour for it. The government is aware that fights
:12:49. > :12:55.about water are breaking out and look set to worsen. Sharp local
:12:55. > :13:02.conflicts are already on the ground. They are a matter of real concern.
:13:02. > :13:08.A state that wants to grow needs to look at water as well as land. Land
:13:08. > :13:18.we are doing through aquisition. I think something very urgent needs
:13:18. > :13:25.
:13:25. > :13:28.to be done about water. Some parts of India do have water. This is one
:13:28. > :13:34.of India's most northern states, sharing a mountain border with
:13:34. > :13:38.China. It is rich in natural beauty and its waters feed to the River
:13:38. > :13:44.Ganges. But these resources are now being used, some say stolen, by
:13:44. > :13:48.others. One of the government solutions to the water crisis is to
:13:48. > :13:53.build a series of massive dams. This one at the foothills of the
:13:53. > :13:57.Himalayas is one of the biggest to date. It is supplying water and
:13:57. > :14:01.electricity for people across the whole of the north of India. From
:14:01. > :14:10.its conception, it proved highly controversial. One reason is that
:14:10. > :14:15.until five or six years ago, the land behind me was a town. When the
:14:15. > :14:18.town disappeared beneath the water, some unlikely alliances were formed.
:14:18. > :14:24.From furious environmentalists to religious groups opposed to this
:14:24. > :14:27.diverting of water which would otherwise flow into the Ganges.
:14:27. > :14:35.Campaigners say villagers are being forced to pay the price for other
:14:35. > :14:38.people's development. Tens of thousands of people were displaced.
:14:38. > :14:44.Those who were forced from their homes and villages were given
:14:44. > :14:51.compensation. They do have new places to live. Many of them are
:14:51. > :14:56.angry. This woman was one of the first to be moved almost 20 years
:14:56. > :15:06.ago. She still has not adjusted. The soil is arid and sandy. She
:15:06. > :15:14.
:15:14. > :15:20.does not have water to irrigate the Some of these villages still
:15:20. > :15:30.struggle to work the dry land. Many have already given up. They have
:15:30. > :15:33.
:15:33. > :15:37.sold their fields to developers and left for the cities. We are back in
:15:37. > :15:43.the mountains overlooking the new Tehri dam reservoir. These families
:15:43. > :15:47.lost their homes by the river. They depend on a pipe now. When I
:15:47. > :15:57.arrived, the water was flowing but soon stopped. Sometimes, there is
:15:57. > :16:00.
:16:00. > :16:05.none for three or four days. When This woman says she was offered re-
:16:05. > :16:10.housing in this tin shack in New Tehri as a short-term measure. That
:16:11. > :16:20.was 13 years ago. She is still here. In her old home, they lived near
:16:21. > :16:33.
:16:33. > :16:37.the river and have plenty of clean The government made plans for many
:16:37. > :16:40.more dams, but some of that work is now on hold in the face of
:16:40. > :16:47.widespread opposition. Some officials say they are rethinking
:16:47. > :16:51.the whole approach. We should first take up the renovation and repair
:16:51. > :16:54.of projects on the ground. We should take up the completion of
:16:54. > :17:04.projects and thirdly, we must radically transform the way the
:17:04. > :17:14.water in these projects is managed. If we can do this, I think we would
:17:14. > :17:21.
:17:21. > :17:29.Back in rural Rajestan, a very different solution is being
:17:29. > :17:39.explored. R explored. Ringh thinks he has the answer to India's water
:17:39. > :17:43.
:17:43. > :17:51.problems. His techniques sound simple. Firstly, stop overgrazing
:17:51. > :17:56.and let plants grow back. Then build check dams. This is not a new
:17:57. > :18:00.idea. This is an old idea. When the rain comes, these slow down the
:18:00. > :18:08.flow, create pools and encourage the water to seep into the earth
:18:08. > :18:11.and replenish ground stocks. Here, despite semi-desert conditions, he
:18:11. > :18:21.has worked with the villagers for decades, building thousands of
:18:21. > :18:26.
:18:26. > :18:34.small dams which take advantage of India has plenty of rain fall, he
:18:34. > :18:37.argues. People have just forgotten how to harvest it. This is what
:18:37. > :18:41.happens if you take those same basic principles and apply them on
:18:41. > :18:44.a much bigger scale. 20 years ago, there was very little water here,
:18:44. > :18:54.but they built a whole series of those stone barriers. It has
:18:54. > :19:03.
:19:03. > :19:08.transformed the landscape and the This man is a water success story.
:19:08. > :19:16.He left his land to work in the city because of the lack of water.
:19:16. > :19:20.Now, he and his sons are back. see the water going down here.
:19:20. > :19:28.built check dams and turned a piece of arid wasteland into a thriving
:19:28. > :19:37.orchard with water to spare. Why is this issue about water coming to a
:19:37. > :19:44.head at the moment? Because on the one hand, there is a lot of water.
:19:44. > :19:52.And on the other hand, no water. There is mismanagement of the water.
:19:52. > :19:58.It creates that difference. Some people are taking a lot of water
:19:58. > :20:08.for drinking. But in rural India, there is no water. People are
:20:08. > :20:08.
:20:08. > :20:18.walking hours and hours for water. Hours and hours. That is a real
:20:18. > :20:22.
:20:22. > :20:25.crisis. Rajendra Singh wants the government's policy to focus on
:20:25. > :20:30.India's grassroots. Projects like water harvesting must be localised,
:20:30. > :20:40.he says. Carried out by the community for their benefit. That
:20:40. > :20:43.
:20:43. > :20:47.way, they are motivated to repair and protect the structures. Back on
:20:47. > :20:50.the banks of the Ganges, pilgrims gather. They travel here from
:20:50. > :20:55.across the country to cleanse themselves in its waters and make
:20:55. > :21:03.offerings. Many seem unaware that the future of their holy river is
:21:03. > :21:07.threatened. For India, this is a defining moment. It is being torn
:21:08. > :21:11.apart by tensions over water as never before. Between rich and poor,
:21:11. > :21:21.cities and villages, those who have water and those who are struggling
:21:21. > :21:31.
:21:31. > :21:36.The ancient fire ritual by the Ganges brings a moment of peace and
:21:36. > :21:41.spiritual reflection. India's harmony is already shattered.