But in India, “Day Zero” has come and gone for residents in many parts of the country, where taps failed long ago and people have turned instead to digging wells or buying water.
An expanding population, growing demand for water from agriculture and industry, and poor management of water supplies have sent India’s groundwater to ever lower levels.
That reality, combined with rising temperatures, threatens worsening scarcity, experts say.
That is the most of any country in the world, according to the UK-based charity, which aims to provide clean water and better hygeiene to people without them.
India is entangled in water disputes with its eastern and western neighbours – Bangladesh and Pakistan – which accuse it of monopolising water flows moving downstream toward them.
To the north and northeast, however, India fears a loss of water to upstream China, which plans a series of dams over the Tsangpo river, called the Brahmaputra as it flows into eastern India.
While India’s trans-boundary rivers are governed by treaties on how water should be shared, disputes are increasing as water shortages stoke tensions.
Apart from in Bhutan and Nepal, South Asia’s per capita water availability is already below the world average.
“These will, in turn, increase tensions between states and countries over water.
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