Shahapur – As Gajanand Dukre parks the water tanker in a drought-strickenIndian village, dozens of locals — mostly women in saris — come runningwith jerry cans, buckets and stainless steel pots.
Over the next two hours Dukre helps them empty the 12,000-litre(3,170-gallon) tank, providing a lifeline to this small community as Indiareels from one of its worst droughts in years.
“We are working overtime,” says 41-year-old Dukre, who conducts four roundsof deliveries a day to hamlets around Shahapur in the parched western stateof Maharashtra.
Dukre is one of 37 drivers operating government-run water tankers in thearea, which is situated around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from India’sfinancial capital Mumbai.
The tankers run seven days a week between March and June, when water is atits scarcest in India.
The Asian giant’s hot season has been particularly harsh this year, withtemperatures rising above 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in Rajasthanstate.
Almost half of India — an area home to more than 500 million people — isfacing drought-like conditions because of deficient pre-monsoon rainfall,according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
In Shakar Pada village, water levels in the well are dangerously low,meaning villagers are relieved to see Dukre roll in, attach a hose to theback of the tanker and start to fill up everyone’s vessels.
“There has been a scarcity of water for the past month,” Pramila Shewaletells AFP as she carries a freshly filled pot of water on her head to herhome.
“If it wasn’t for the water tankers we would have to rely on the well,which would be very difficult,” the 25-year-old adds.
– Monsoon –
Read Top Stories
The village’s 98 families survive on agriculture, growing mostly rice andvegetables that they sell at markets in nearby cities. During drought thereis no water for agriculture or livestock.
Falling groundwater levels and poor irrigation techniques mean they areoverly reliant on India’s June-to-September southwest monsoon, whichprovides the country with most of its annual rainfall.
Three of the last five monsoons have been deficient and while the IMD ispredicting a normal monsoon this year it is already a week late and thatworries farmers.
“Every year the drought gets worse. I pray to God that there is sufficientwater (this time),” Naresh Rera, a 32-year-old farmer, tells AFP.
Dukre will keep delivering water until the monsoon is in full swing inMaharashtra, likely by the end of the month.
Every night he and his colleagues sleep in their vehicles where the tankersare lined up on wasteland beside a river.
They wake at 3:00 am and fill the tanks with water from the dammed rivernearby. They pour in chlorine and head to the parched villages.
They come back, fill up and head out again. Often Dukre doesn’t finish hisrounds until 7.30 pm.
“It’s hard work but my heart feels good because I am helping people,” hesays. -APP/AFP
