AQUAE
A journey inside the stories of the water crisis in Rajasthan, India
I took these photographs in Rajasthan, Agra and New Delhi between the months of February and March 2023. This is a digital version of a physical exhibition, on show in Italy and Sweden. AQUAE invites the viewer to recognise elsewhere their same necessity: those 2 litres of water a day that connect us.
Rajasthan is the largest state of India and the one with the least water resouces. Over 60% — and growing — of its area is occupied by the Thar desert, the most densely populated arid region in the world. In the last 30 years, rainfall has decreased by 20%, and maximum temperatures have soared, reaching peaks of over 50 °C.
“I am happy. Until last year I used to walk 7km a day to fetch water. Now that they have dug the pond I only have to walk 2. The rainwater we collect here is clean, so we only use it for drinking.”
Women in Tolesar Charnan work to reinforce the banks of the rainwater harvesting pond. There is no sign of the men. They left this morning to work in the mines and will return only after sunset, says a young girl.
Bottled water is clean and a privilege. More than half of the people in Rajasthan drink water that is considered unsafe by World Health Organisation standards.
In the Thar desert, the only source of ‘drinkable’ water comes from the sky. These cement tanks collect rainwater which falls here in the monsoon season, between July and August. That is the water to drink and should not be wasted. It has to last for the following 10 months.
For those who do not have a tap connection at home (half of Rajasthan population), even the fountains at the train station become a point of reference for water supply.
Water scarcity forces thousands of farmers to move to the cities in search of work. Hence, slums of India’s metropolises are rapidly overfilling. In Old Delhi, the population density has reached 34 thousands inhabitants per km². For comparison, in Milan it’s 2 thousand.
In the city of Jaisalmer, on the border with Pakistan, the only source of water is a 600 km long canal that brings water from the glaciers of Himalayas to the heart of the desert.
In Rajasthan, where summer temperatures can reach 50 °C, stepwells, ancient rainwater collection wells, become a gathering place to escape the heat.
While in Italy around 1000mm of rain fall every year, in the Thar the figure stops at 200mm, after a decline of 50mm in the last 30 years alone.
The Khejri Tree is the national tree of Rajasthan. It is able to withstand drought and allows rainwater to penetrate the soil with its long roots. In 1730, a Marwar woman gave her life to defend a Khejri from deforestation. Since then, the tree has become sacred to the Marwari people, who often build small temples around its base.
To enter the sacred city of Pushkar, on the edge of the desert, one has to pay a ticket. Thousands of devotees come here every year to bathe in the waters of its lake, where Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were scattered.
In the Maderana slum in Jodhpur, water comes out of the tap for three hours a day, every other day. When there is no water, those who have extra tanks of water sell them in an actual “water market”.
More than half of the villages in the Thar desert do not have a source of drinking water within a 2 km radius. Covering these distances are the women, some of whom spend half their day fetching water.
In the Thar desert, if a woman was not born in the village but only moved there after her marriage, she will cover her face with a veil pulled down over her head for the rest of her life.
A family of eight lives in this house. They live off the 8 goats they keep in the yard and the small vegetable garden, where they grow onions and lentils. Their wealth is in the underground rainwater collection tank. With a good rainy season they can manage to store enough water for a year.
More than 200 villages in Rajasthan rely on water tankers for their water supply. Lines of people queue up at the tanker truck, hoping that the water will not run out before their turn comes. Those who can afford to buy a larger container will get more water. The tanks will then be rolled home.
Water is taught by thirst
_Emily Dickinson
“When it’s the day the taps work we wash our clothes and the floors. Then we take all the water we can and put it in the tank on the roof. That way we can save it for the dry months.”
No city in India provides water supply 24/7 for everyone. Often, it is only for some neighborhoods. In Jaipur, in the slum of Jawahar Nagar, the taps run for an average of 15 minutes a day. On the other side of the city, in the residential neighbhorhood of Jagatpura, water runs 24 hours a day.
In 2023, India overtook China to become the most populous country in the world. Population growth will continue at least until 2050, when there will be 1.8 billion Indians. Every one of them will need to drink at least 2 litres of water every day. Just like all of us.
