Wash your clothes, or flush the toilet?
Tourists told to stay away from Indian city of Shimla due to water crisis Read more Public toilets were padlocked; families used disposable cutlery and threw it away; water trucks rolled in offering to fill tanks – at a steep mark-up; and people queued for hours to receive two buckets from a government supply.
An estimated 21 major cities could exhaust their groundwater supplies within two years, government advisors believe.
In the past month, Shimla, in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, has emerged as the frontline of the emergency.
“There is climate change all over India and the world,” says Jai Ram Thakur, the Himachal Pradesh chief minister.
Others say Shimla is an example of how negligence can create a water crisis, one they warn will be repeated in cities and villages across India.
It is a lack of vision’ Hours after he was sworn in as the mayor of Shimla in 2012, Sanjay Chauhan asked to visit the Giri river, one of six major sources of the city’s water supply.
Last year, more than 18 million tourists visited the city.
He compares Shimla to Cape Town, the South African city that narrowly avoided running out of water this year after officials raised warnings and citizens restricted their use.
The water would just go.” Officials in Shimla maintain the crisis was exaggerated.