The world is thirsty. Our half empty glass means only half full glass to another...

India├óÔé¼Ôäós 1.002 billion population, huge and growing is putting a severe strain on all of the country├óÔé¼Ôäós natural resources. Most water sources are contaminated by sewage and agricultural runoff. India has been overpumping aquifers to supply water, which takes over thousand years to be regenerated. India has made progress in the supply of safe water to its people, but gross disparity in coverage exists across the country. Although access to drinking water has improved, the World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water. In India, diarrhea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily├óÔé¼ÔÇØthe same as if eight 200-person jumbo-jets crashed to the ground each day. Hygiene practices also continue to be a problem in India. Latrine usage is extremely poor in rural areas of the country; only 14% of the rural population has access to a latrine. Hand washing is also very low, increasing the spread of disease. In order to decrease the amount of disease spread through drinking-water, latrine usage and hygiene must be improved simultaneously.

Water pipe in Mumbai India’s water table has dropped to alarmingly low levels

The authorities in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) have reduced water supplies by 30% as it faces one of the worst water shortages in its history.

The cuts will affect supplies to hundreds of thousands of households as well as hospitals and hotels.

Most lakes that supply water to Indian cities are heavily dependent on monsoon rainfall which this year has been intermittent, officials say.

Mumbai is India’s most populated city and its commercial and film-making hub.

But now correspondents say its 20 million inhabitants face an acute water shortage for the first time in living memory.

The drought in Maharashtra in the west comes as half a million people have been stranded as rivers burst their banks due to flooding in the north-eastern state of Assam.

Alarming

If more rain does not arrive soon, the lakes which supply Mumbai will recede still further.

The BBC’s Prachi Pinglay in Mumbai says that rainfall figures are alarming compared with last year. In many areas of the state of Maharashtra and its capital, there has been only 25% of the rainfall received by this time last year.

Residents in several areas of Mumbai are now concerned about having to buy water from private water supply tankers as the five main lakes which supply the city now have levels between four to 10 metres lower than at this time last year.

The city corporation has urged citizens to save water and use it sparingly. They say one lake has enough water to last for the next three weeks, while two others have reserves for about two months.

Jayshree Ranade, a resident of Girgaum, south Mumbai, says that her household barely gets 45 minutes of water supply a day.

“We get water at about 4.45 am and it’s gone before 5.45 am. Earlier we used to get water for more than two hours,” she told the BBC.

“In my building all the families wake up at 4.30 am and everyone has to have a shower, wash clothes, utensils and fill up the water tank – all before 5.45 am. It’s a mad rush. Children wake up, get ready and go back to sleep.”

The authorities now say they are also considering seeding clouds to generate artificial rainfall.

The civic corporation has also reduced water supplies to swimming pools in five-star hotels and clubs.

Officials say that there are two ways to impose a water cut – one by reducing the number of hours of water supply and, second, to cut the supply at source.

India’s capital, Delhi, is also reeling from depleted water supplies, while many towns and villages across the country still have woefully inadequate safe drinking water facilities.

They depend largely on bore wells, which have seriously depleted the country’s water table.

The BBC’s Zubair Ahmed in Mumbai says farm produce is also likely to be badly affected if the full monsoon does not arrive soon.

In rural Ethiopia, women and children walk up to six hours to collect water. Most people collect water from shallow, unprotected ponds which they share with animals. Other people collect water from shallow wells. Both of these sources are subject to contamination as rain water washes waste from surrounding areas into the source. The jugs women use to carry water back to the village weigh up to 40 pounds! Often, young children are left at home while their mother and older siblings collect water and their fathers work.

In the last 20 years, Ethiopia has experienced recurring droughts followed by food shortages and famines. During times of drought, water-related diseases are rampant. Surface water sources such as springs and ponds dry up. Remaining water sources are heavily contaminated by environmental waste, such as human and animal excreta, which is washed in when it does rain. The stagnant water serves as a breeding place for mosquitoes.

In times of drought, there is often not enough water available for people to bathe regularly. As a result, community members, especially children, suffer from scabies and eye infections. During these times, in an effort to conserve water, hand-washing after defecation or before eating is rarely practiced. Diarrheal and water-related diseases are among the principle causes of death in young children.
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Honduras is the knee of Central America, bordered to the south by Nicaragua and El Salvador, and to the west by Guatemala. In the rural regions, nearly 63% of the population is considered extremely poor, living on less than a dollar a day.

Families often work as subsistence farmers├óÔé¼ÔÇØgrowing only enough to feed their own families, and leaving very little money for other purchases.

In 1998 Honduras was devastated by Hurricane Mitch. The tiny country was the hardest hit by Mitch├óÔé¼Ôäós rampage. Mitch was followed by three days of rain that caused landslides and floods, burying towns and killing thousands of people. Many of the rural communities were devastated. The hurricane caused $58 million in damages and left 75% of the country without safe drinking water.

Reconstruction efforts are continuing. However, until they are complete, in these areas families are forced to rely on contaminated water supplies, and the prevalence of waterborne diseases like cholera is increasing. Mosquitoes that carry malaria and dengue fever are also a problem.

In addition to the health issues it creates, poor access to water also causes overall development to stagnate. Many women and children in the rural areas of Honduras spend up to six hours each day simply fetching water and carrying it home on their heads.