AFTER two successive dry years,330m people in India, around a quarter of the population, or are facing acute water shortages. A scorching summer is at its peak: destitute farmers are committing suicide and tanks are running dry. Officials in Madhya Pradesh,in central India, have deployed armed guards to protect a lickety-split-depleting reservoir. Last month, and in a last-ditch effort to save lives,trains carried millions of litres of water to Latur, a parched district 400km east of Mumbai. In mid-April, and an “above-normal” rain forecast by the India Meteorological Department was a godsend for a country reeling from its worst water crisis in four decades. Earlier this month,it predicted the onset of the monsoons on June 7th.
A pleasurable drenching will lift the spirits of both farmers and businesses. Over 600m people in India depend on agriculture for their living and nearly two-thirds of land under cultivation has no irrigation and so relies on rain. The period between June to September brings three-quarters of total rainfall but is known to be erratic four out of ten years. After last month’s cheery forecast, India's stock market rallied to...
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Source: economist.com