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Dry Days In The City Across Northwest IndiaBy akansha, Section GN 
But 2009 is not 1975. The Met predicts that if it rains, it won't rain enough. Scarce rain has long been seen as a farmers' problem. But it affects cities and semi-urban areas just as much. This is particularly obvious here. Ajmer does not have a nearby source of running water and gets supplies from Bisalpur dam, 120 km away. "Since the pipeline is mostly overground, every once in a while villagers keep tampering with it and divert the supply. But you can't find fault with them there is just no water," says Mohammad Bashir, who lives near the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Wooing the rain gods
Source: Times Of India Dry days in the city Click On "Full Story" For More...
In the state capital, Jaipur, people buy water from tankers at least twice a week. "The underground water level seems to be depleting drastically. We have to constantly dig deeper to keep up with it," says a resident. Even so, Chauhan may be one of the luckier ones. Women in villages around trudge barefoot for hours in search of water. On average, a village woman in Rajasthan walks more than 14,000 km a year just to fetch water. Their urban sisters are slightly better off; they do not walk long distances, but stand in the winding queues for hours to collect water from water lorries.
"There are many semi-urban localities in the state where women spend the entire day, looking for a water source, which is generally some leakage in the supply pipe or a remote handpump in a field," says Gaur. It's not just Rajasthan, a parched desert state. Semi-urban areas in all north-western states face a wave of water problems. In Rajkot in Gujarat, it's been a month since the water supply was reduced to once every two days. "We are barely able to fill 6-7 buckets every alternate day," says Nisha, a housewife. Official estimates say there is just 20% of water in dams all over Gujarat, which can barely sustain supply for a few more days. A poor monsoon means a major crisis. "A rickshaw loaded with 5-6 water cans comes at Rs 140 while a tanker of water (almost 100 litre) comes for Rs 800," says Rajkot resident Bharti Tanna. Water can seem as precious as gold. "My husband earns Rs 10, 000 per month of which Rs 3,000 is spent on water," says Tanna.
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It is the year much of Ajmer remembers. In 1975, the monsoons meant the skies opening up and so much rain that ponds and lakes were full and the underg round water table higher than anyone could remember.
