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India’s most innovative cities are running out of water
Fixing the issue means confronting the country’s two most sensitive industries: agriculture and power generation.
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A resident in Bengaluru carrying a container of subsidised water on March 19, 2024.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
David Fickling
At the time Egypt’s pyramids were being constructed, one of the cradles of global civilisation grew up in the Indus Valley, around the borders of Pakistan and India. Its grid-planned cities produced sewerage networks, delicate artworks and an undeciphered writing system. Then a 900-year drought emptied its urban areas and sent its population back to a simpler, poorer village life on the plains of the Ganges.
Something grimly similar is happening right now.
