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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| The 'water mafia' draining India |
| 2004-08-20 |
| By Anu Anand Thursday, 19 August, 2004, 11:11 GMT 12:11 UK BBC correspondent (Delhi) - India's annual monsoon is a lifeline, bringing water to farmland and refreshing a population reeling from the long months of summer heat. But while eastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh have suffered devastating floods, the rains in the west have failed for the fourth time in as many years. It was yet another hot, sticky Indian summer day when I set out to visit a cousin in Delhi's newest middle-class suburb. A tiny electric fan mounted inside the car whirred noisily, as we made our way from the central enclave of imperial New Delhi towards the south-west. Since the British left in 1947, Delhi has added a jumble of settlements, like the rings of a tree. Almost an hour later, we arrived at the outermost ring, the new suburb of Dwarka. The landscape, stripped of its trees and brutally flattened, has been overrun by hundreds of new high-rise apartment buildings. Laid out by sectors in an orderly grid, Dwarka is about as inspiring as a Soviet housing bloc. But this is where the beneficiaries of India's high-tech boom are making their homes. Short supply My cousin and his wife are both successful young computer programmers. Their flat has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and several balconies overlooking the new sports complex across the road - all for the relatively reasonable sum of £19,000 ($35,000). Inside, it is light and airy. The floors are marble, the built-in wardrobes are large. They own a new widescreen TV and a gleaming fridge. This is the middle class dream: your own home, a new car in the private garage and space away from the extended family. But that night, we slept in the same room, sharing the blast of cool air from the flat's lone air-conditioner. Then at 0600, I was disturbed by the sound of my sister-in-law clattering around the bathroom, filling up plastic buckets from a tap. She apologised. "The water's come on for just 15 minutes. If I don't fill up, we won't have any water all day." This reminds me of showering at midnight in Armenia so that I could have marginally detectable water pressure. |
| Posted by:Zenster |