These photos show a ‘tanker’ supplying drinking water to the residents of the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi, as demand has surged with soring temperatures.
But they also highlight something else: the inaccessibility of water to these people despite being so near a major water source.
The Yamuna aquifers have the potential to provide ~250 million cubic meters of water annually.
But demand often exceeds supply and private suppliers or ‘water mafias’ step in, operating illegally in these areas.
Water, the elixir of life, thus becomes a commodity and the right to access it is denied to those on the margins of society.