It might also be the next city to experience “day zero”: when it runs out of ground water entirely.
But in settlements just outside the city centre, people already live without municipal water supplies.
The Bengaluru water board does supply a range of tanker water services.
To access drinkable water, some of the more fortunate areas have access to pipe connections where water flows once a week for an hour or so.
These water kiosks are also connected to groundwater sources and water filters.
If kiosk water is limited or absent, residents have to depend on “canned” water for drinking and cooking purposes.
It is priced at 300-500 INR per tanker for 4,000-5,000 litres.
In some neighbourhoods, residents collectively buy tanker water by pooling resources.
This limited water supply also comes at the cost of time.
Based on our sampling of experiences in seven neighbourhoods of southeast Bengaluru, adult women such as Manjula* typically spend between 3 and 5 hours a week working to secure water supplies – time that could be used to supplement household income.