It's going to be a long, hot summer and one that is ridden with drought and despair. At least 10 states are reeling under an acute water crisis. Rivers and reservoirs are running dry, farmers suicides are on the rise in the worst drought in a century. The crisis are forcing states to deploy security personnel to guard sources of water and people are being forced to walk kilometres for a litre of drinking water while farmers are migrating to cities and living in camps. In the midst of this, NDTV has reported a tanker mafia with many politicians owning a piece of the pie; a booming business with thousands of litres of water being used to contain dust on helipads in Latur as state ministers visit. P Sainath once said everyone loves a good drought. With human cost so high, where do we draw the line?
