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• 1 media/Polluted_Canal_in_India.jpg 2024-08-14T14:43:21+00:00 Quenching The Thirst: Unraveling India's Water Crisis 20 Throughout this website, I explore India's water crisis by examining its causes, including climate change, pollution, agricultural practices, and urbanization. I also delve into the historical context and discuss potential solutions to address the crisis and ensure a sustainable future for the country’s water resources. image_header 2024-08-16T00:42:56+00:00 Savage, M. (2008b). Water pollution in India. Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polluted_Canal_in_India.jpg 25 November 2008 Imagine being deprived of a basic human right in your own country: water. The citizens of India are grappling with a worsening water crisis. They feel ignored by government leaders who claim to care but fail to take action. There are claims of development in India, but in Mumbai, 10 wells were installed, some placed next to toilets where sewage contamination can seep in. How can this be considered development? How can the government focus on advancing one area of the country while neglecting such critical issues? Residents see their water as contaminated which reflects exclusion from modern citizenship which has treated water. Mumbai isn’t the only place in India facing this crisis, driven by various factors such as pollution, inefficient agricultural practices, insufficient government planning, and relentless urban sprawl., These issues have collectively led to a severe scarcity of safe water, affecting 35 million people. Numerous efforts have been made to manage water resources and ensure adequate supplies of good quality water for the global population. Informing communities about effective water use and equipping them with tools to monitor water contamination levels is an essential first step. With communities willing to learn and eager to take the steps towards a brighter future and cleaner water then why is this crisis still so prevalent? In this website, I will examine how the denial of clean water in India intensifies the effects of slow violence on affected communities and how ecological violence contributes significantly to the water crisis. The prolonged neglect by government officials only deepens the harm inflicted on citizens. Addressing this issue is crucial, as understanding and tackling these complex factors are essential for implementing effective measures to preserve clean water amidst India's rapid growth and development.
  
  As Nikhil Anand reveals in Municipal Disconnect: On Abject Water and Its Urban Infrastructures, city engineers and technocrats intentionally neglect the water infrastructure in Premnagar, a Muslim settlement in Mumbai. This neglect is not a mere oversight but a deliberate process of withholding essential services, marginalizing the residents. Political pressure shifted the engineers' focus to less congested areas, while their biases against Premnagar's residents—viewed as outsiders—further influenced their decisions, leading to inadequate attention and resources for the settlement. Anand also highlights how the reliance on bore wells for water supply, which are often contaminated with sewage and pollutants, represents a form of ecological violence. Residents are forced to use this tainted water, resulting in severe health risks and a deteriorated quality of life. Additionally, the use of illegal connections to tap into the municipal water supply exacerbates the problem by damaging infrastructure and disrupting water flow, affecting not only Premnagar but also the broader urban ecology by creating imbalances in water pressure and distribution. Anand’s insights into urban governance practices, particularly the bureaucratic procedures and discriminatory practices that exclude certain populations from accessing essential services, shed light on the flaws and inequalities inherent in current urban governance. These ideas enable readers to critically examine the governance policies that shape urban environments and understand how they perpetuate systemic disparities. Anand calls attention to the need for a more inclusive and equitable approach to urban development and infrastructure provision. This also helps readers understand how marginalized communities are systematically denied access to essential services. According to Anand, these bureaucratic barriers function as a form of social control, reinforcing the status quo and perpetuating existing inequalities.