Cape Town in South Africa will be the world’s first major city to run out of water, as the “Zero Hour” on 15th July 2018, looms closer. India, amongst several other countries, is in tow to follow suit. As climate change makes its impact felt across India and the world, water scarcity – a direct result, continues to spread like an epidemic. Children face some of the fiercest risks arising from these conditions. Especially vulnerable are the children on the fringes of the society – further marginalized by having no access to safe, hygienic and potable water.
What does this mean?
It means that their little feet will have to bear the heat of the scorching earth as they traverse farther in search of drinking water.
It means that they will have no sanitation facilities and will have to make their way to river banks, fields, train tracks and dingy alleyways to use as make-shift toilets; making themselves prone to several risks such as harassment, diseases, and accidents.
It means that water borne diseases such as diarrhoea will continue to claim their lives.
It means that food production will suffer, rendering those at the grass roots as the worst victims.
It means that their every day existence will continue to be an embittered battle for survival.
Here are some telling photographs from across the country that capture the battle for survival, of India’s children in search of water.
Piryanka fetches water in Malegaon village, Parbhani district in Maharashtra. (Photo: Amit Haralkar)Children from the village of Kankroli look for shells in the dried out bed of the Rajsamand lake near Udaipur in India’s drought-hit state of Rajasthan. The lake has dried up for the first time in living memory. Thousands of villages in Rajasthan are facing an acute shortage of water and animal feed with most sources of water having dried out in what is seen to be the worst drought in 100 years. (Photo: Unknown)
Water levels in wells is so low that one cant get enough water from a pail. A girl got into the well to fetch water at a remote village about 180 km from Mumbai. (Photo: Aditya Waikul)