Unit 4: More Water for India Narrator: New Delhi is a large city in northern India. The air here can be so dirty that it’s sometimes difficult to see the city. The water supply doesn’t look much better. The Yamuna River runs through the city. Every day, 50 million gallons of chemicals are put into the river. This river is the city’s main source of drinking water. The 14 million people in and around New Delhi must get their water from community water trucks. These trucks distribute water to the places where people live.

Sometimes there’s enough water for everyone, and sometimes there isn’t. The people of New Delhi require about one billion gallons of water a day. They only receive about 25 percent of that. In the rich parts of the city, you’ll find busy shopping centers, well-dressed shoppers, and expensive restaurants. But their water still comes on trucks. Outside of Delhi, in the region of Rajasthan, getting water is even harder. The temperatures frequently reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit or 50 degrees Celsius. People have to walk for miles to get water from a well.

Then they often have to drink next to their animals. Once a year, there is a lot of rain, during a time called the monsoon season. But people need water all year. What can India do to solve its water problems? Some in the government says the answer is to build more big dams. But many people disagree with that idea. They think that India’s dams have made the water problem worse by drying up rivers and wells. Rajendra Singh, Environmentalist: Thousands of millions of rupees have already been invested in water policy and big dams. How do you explain villages with no water?

Who is responsible for all this? Well, the blame lies on the very system which advocates the construction of bigger dams. Narrator: A man named Rajendra Singh has a different idea to solve the problem. He started an organization that works with people in the villages to make clean water easily available. He teaches them to build very small dams to store water and change the land. People in the Alwar region decided to try Singh’s idea. They began collecting stone and rock and made small earthen dams. They then made small holes near them and covered them with stone, earth, and clay.

This stopped rainwater from running off and raised the level of the water under the ground. Every time it rained, the groundwater level got higher. The people made wells to bring water to their farms, and soon, water reached every part of the village. Today, a village that was dry and lifeless is green and healthy. Because of two small earthen dams, farmers who couldn’t grow enough food for their families can now produce food for them. And the idea has spread....

Rosda Rajasthan, Villager: We’re building water reservoirs and dams to save rain water. We want our village, Rosda, to be green and prosperous like Neemie. Narrator: Now more than 4000 small earthen dams collect rainwater across western India. They provide water for more than 800 communities. Small dams like these aren’t practical for the people of New Delhi. They couldn’t provide enough water.

Experts say that in New Delhi, water conservation and new water supplies could make life better for about 10 years. But the work of Rajendra Singh in Alwar shows that change is possible. Now, the people there don’t have to walk many miles for water. Clean, fresh water is always close by. His success shows that the people in different places need to find the solution that is right for them.