‘No water at home is not a thought one wants to wake up to every morning’

3 min readNew DelhiMay 27, 2026 02:56 AM IST

Around 4 pm every day, 50-year-old Neelam steps out of her one-room home in West Delhi’s Faridpuri carrying three buckets and a stack of steel containers.

She places them in a queue and sits under the harsh summer sun, waiting. One by one, her friends and neighbours also join her with their containers. Sitting on their upturned buckets and drums, they talk about what they watched last night on television and what they plan to cook in the night.

Around half-an-hour later, a blue-coloured water tanker appears at the end of the street.

All conversations stop. Faces tighten and the women stand up. As soon as the tanker reaches their spot, there is a scramble – everyone tries to tie their pipes to the water outlet and fill their containers before the supply runs out.

Male members of the family shuttle filled buckets back home while the women guard their place in the queue.

Neelam says this is not how they fill water usually. But they have to now — their area is fullly dependent on tankers to fulfill their daily needs, as their usual supply has gone dry.

“Earlier, the supply came between 6 am and 7.30 am every day. We depended on water tankers on alternate days to fulfill our additional demand. But for almost a month now, we have not received any water in our homes. Everyone is relying on tankers now,” she adds.

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Neighbourhoods across the Capital are reeling under water shortage, as water levels at the Wazirabad pond continued to fall sharply amid peak summer demand.

The shortage has spared neither low-income colonies nor affluent neighbourhoods.

Trisha Arora (40), who lives in Block E of Greater Kailash 1, says, A neighbour who has someone suffering from Parkinson’s at home broke down when we did not get water for 15 days straight. No water at home is not a thought one wants to wake up to every morning. We check the water tank six times a day to see how much is left.”

She adds that even supply by private tankers is unreliable because of the restrictions that have been put on diesel vehicles during peak pollution days. “Sometimes tankers also are not available.”

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Sanjay Anand, president of the Greater Kailash Residents Association, recalls that this might be the first time that the locality is facing supply cuts. “But to the credit of Delhi Jal Board, whenever we call them, they send tankers,” he adds.

Sunanda (41), who lives in South Delhi’s Dakshinpuri and irons clothes for a living, says they are trying new things every day. “We collect water from wherever we can—tankers, bottled cans… we also get water from neighbours who have borewells. You just learn to manage somehow.”

Ramesh Ahuja, president of Northwest Delhi’s Ashok Vihar D Block RWA, said people are angry.

“Earlier, we used to get water for four hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. This has now come down to two hours in the morning and one hour in the evening. As we don’t know when water will come in the four-hour slot in the morning, residents stay awake since 4.30 am. Else, they will miss the day’s supply,” he adds.

Devansh Mittal is a Correspondent at The Indian Express, based in the New Delhi City bureau. He reports on urban policy, civic governance, and infrastructure in the National Capital Region, with a growing focus on housing, land policy, transport, and the disruption economy and its social implications.

Professional Background

Education: He studied Political Science at Ashoka University.

Core Beats: His reporting focuses on policy and governance in the National Capital Region, one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world. He covers housing and land policy, municipal governance, urban transport, and the interface between infrastructure, regulation, and everyday life in the city.

Recent Notable Work

His recent reporting includes in-depth examinations of urban policy and its on-ground consequences:

An investigation into subvention-linked home loans that documented how homebuyers were drawn into under-construction projects through a “builder–bank” nexus, often leaving them financially exposed when delivery stalled.

A detailed report on why Delhi’s land-pooling policy has remained stalled since 2007, tracing how fragmented land ownership, policy design flaws, and mistrust among stakeholders have kept one of the capital’s flagship urban reforms in limbo.

A reported piece examining the collapse of an electric mobility startup and what it meant for women drivers dependent on the platform for livelihoods.

Reporting Approach

Devansh’s work combines on-ground reporting with analysis of government data, court records, and academic research. He regularly reports from neighbourhoods, government offices, and courtrooms to explain how decisions on housing, transport, and the disruption economy shape everyday life in the city.

Contact

X (Twitter): @devanshmittal_
Email: devansh.mittal@expressindia.com … Read More