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June 15, 2009
Murder for Water in India's Drought
In the central India state of Madhya Pradesh, (pictured), where a drought has persisted over a year, people are giving their lives to be the first to get at water.
It has been reported by the the Bhopal Superintendent of Police that in 17 of the state's districts, at least five people have been beaten to death over water disputes, and many more have been injured.
In the city of Bhopal on May 13, a father, mother and their son were killed while trying to get water from a leaking municipal pipe.
"The water problem is a huge crisis," said Babulala Gaur, Minister of Urban Administration and Development. Gaur said volunteers are helping to organize the water distribution.
"It's the nature of people fighting over water tank because they want the water first," he said.
"This year, everyone is struggling for water," said Maria Fernandez, regional director for WaterAid India. "This is the worst I have ever seen," she said.
"It's of an unimaginable magnitude. In fact, it's unprecedented," Bhopal Mayor's Sunil Sood said, speaking of the current drought.
"Police is not there to beat people and stop them from taking water. It only ensures that all people get water," he said. "When our water tankers reach a particular locality, people rush to collect as much water as possible. And this results in scuffle and fights. We are trying to ensure that all of them get equal or fair share," as reported by ABC News.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at June 15, 2009 01:05 PM
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Comments
I'm so sad to hear that people are being murdered over such a basic right as clean water. We have been watching the droughts in India, Australia and elsewhere worsen. This morning on CNN they did a quick weather report and showed that the monsoons are just not coming in and rainfall continues to be well below normal. I do hope the Indian government can find wise solutions to an ever increasing problem.
Here's a post one of my colleagues wrote last month about the water wars in India: http://blog.airdye.com/goodforwater/2009/05/29/indian-water-wars/
~Robin Bertelsen
AirDye Evangelist
http://airdye.com
Posted by: Robin Bertelsen ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://watersecretsblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 21, 2009 01:39 PM
Dear Steve Betheil,
I'm the associate editor for 1H2O.org, a non-profit news site covering worldwide water issues. We're currently looking for images of drought in India and we came across the image in your blog post. We would like to be able to publish that image with our article. Where did you get that image and who should receive the credit/courtesy? Thank you very much.
Cordially,
Walyce Almeida
1H2O.org Associate Editor
1h2o@miami.edu
Posted by: 1H2O at September 17, 2009 09:56 AM
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