Water, the resource we take for granted, becomes so scarce that wars are fought over it, and people in some of the world’s most populous regions fight for the right to irrigate their precious crops.
It might sound like a dystopian vision in a science fiction novel. But it’s already happening.
Authorities in one drought-parched city in central India have now deployed round-the-clock armed guards at a river-fed community reservoir to prevent farmers from siphoning the remaining water for irrigation.
With rainfall in Tikamgarh district this year 52 per cent below average — the second dry year for the area — water is now available to city residents only sporadically, with fears even that may run out completely during the peak heat months of May and June, with the monsoons arriving later every year.
One local, 47-old Suryakant Tiwari, said his family and many others now have drinking and household water supplied only once every five days.
“I have not seen such a condition in my lifetime. Almost every water source in the area has dried up. We don’t know how we will survive,” Tiwari he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Almost every water source in the area has dried up. We don’t know how we will survive.”
Suryakant Tiwari, Tikamgarh local
Farmers have been banned from drawing water from reservoirs to irrigate their crops. But locals fear farmers from adjoining Uttar Pradesh state — whose farms border the Bari Ghat dam, fed by the Jumuniya River — are poaching water to try to keep their crops alive.
“If crops continue to be irrigated using the river water, it is not going to last long and there will be severe crisis during the summer season,” warned Laxmi Giri, the Tikamgahr municipal corporation president. “Our priority is to supply drinking water to the people.”
But “farmers of the neighbouring state try to open the gates of the dam and draw water illegally using pipelines. We’re therefore compelled to deploy guards,” Mr Giri said.
Tikamgarh is hardly alone. The drought-ravaged Bundelkhand, a region in central India spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, is suffering some of the worst drought in memory.
Crops in the area have been badly hit, cattle are dying of thirst and lack of grazing.
“If we give water to animals, there’ll be none left for us. We’re feeling so helpless.”
Kanta Prasad, farmer
Rajendra Adhvrayu, a local journalist who writes on water issues in the region: said: “The situation has never been so bad,” he added. “This is for the first time that the tussle over water has degenerated into a battle of sorts. We fear the situation will be grave during the coming months.”
The search for water has become so intense that in many places — including Madhya Pradesh’s Dindori district — children are descending into deep, almost-dry wells to try to fetch what little water is available, residents said.
Across the globe, huge areas are in crisis today as reservoirs dry up, a process exacerbated by rising global temperatures. More than a billion individuals – one in seven people on the planet -– are now thought to lack access to safe drinking water.
Behind the escalating violence in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as the epidemic of civil unrest across the wider region, is a growing shortage of water.
Back in Bundelkhand, locals spell the what the drying planet means for them. “Animals are dying without water. We can’t do anything,” said Kanta Prasad, a resident of the Jatara sub-district of Tikamgarh.
“If we give water to animals, there’ll be none left for us. We’re feeling so helpless. Every drop of water counts.”