Nearly dry Nallurahalli Lake in Bengaluru. The city gets plenty of rain, but it did not properly adapt as its soaring population strained traditional water sources. — Photos: ©2024 The New York Times Company
THE water tankers seeking to fill their bellies bounced past the dry lakes of India’s booming technology capital. Their bleary-eyed drivers waited in line to suck what they could from wells dug deep into dusty lots between app offices and apartment towers named for bougainvillea – all built before sewage and water lines could reach them.
At one well, where neighbours lamented the loss of a mango grove, a handwritten logbook listed the water runs of a crisis: 3.15 and 4.10 one morning; 12.58, 2.27 and 3.29 the next.
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A dry patch
Residents filling up containers with subsidised water poured from a tanker truck.
Residents fill up containers with subsidized water poured from a tanker truck in Bengaluru, India, on March 19, 2024. (Atul Loke/The New York Times)
Workers digging a bore well. Bengaluru’s otherwise healthy aquifers have been drawn dry by the unchecked spread of such wells.
Workers dig a bore well in Bengaluru, India, on March 18, 2024. (Atul Loke/The New York Times)
A resident carrying a container with subsidised water in Bengaluru, India.
A resident carries containers with subsidized water in Bengaluru, India, on March 19, 2024. (Atul Loke/The New York Times)
Residents fill up containers with subsidised water at a government distribution center in Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore. — Photos: ©2024 The New York Times Company
Residents fill up containers with subsidized water at a government distribution center in Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore, India, on March 19, 2024. (Atul Loke/The New York Times)
