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The slum residents trying to prevent a water crisis

We are on our way to Jai Hind camp, home to about 1,200 families in the south of Delhi, India.
Here, more than anywhere else in the Indian capital, life revolves around water.
Tankers carry water to the camp seven times a day and, until recently, filling up a couple of 50-litre tanks was an ugly game, explains Kaur, who works with the Forum for Organised Resource Conservation and Enhancement (Force), a charity trying to improve sanitation and access to clean water in India.
Managing the new community toilet is helping her achieve that, but Fatima, who only uses her first name, is not only working for the benefit of her own family.
While this doesn’t mean that the capital is going to run dry, as it receives water supply from neighbouring states, "Delhi is currently pulling too much water out of the ground and we are not putting back a sufficient amount", says Amitabh Kant, chief executive of NITI Aayog.
"These are states to which 50% of the population and agriculture basket belongs, and therefore, if they do not do well, food security is at risk for the whole of India."
"What happens is that some politicians or officials within the Delhi Jal Board (the government agency responsible for drinking water supply in the region) use public tankers to sell water as a private enterprise."
Water guardians Tucked away in the industrial area of Kirti Nagar, in west Delhi, a small migrant community offers a glimpse of an alternative future, where water is equally distributed and reaches people’s homes, even in a slum.
This is one of the first notified slums in Delhi where the government is supporting such a sophisticated water supply system.
"Our strength is working as a group" she says.

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