Water in Mumbai - Where does it come from where does it go

Nikhil Anand, an environmental and urban anthropologist, grew up in Mumbai, India.

In 2007, after studying and working in the U.S., he returned to Mumbai to research urban infrastructure

In his field work, met a woman, Alka tai, a first-generation immigrant to Mumbai. Alka tai invited him to her home, a small house alongside a narrow alleyway.

He didn’t expect to find a two-storied brick-and-mortar home in the middle of a well-planned grid, with tiled floors and curtains. Alka tai’s children were studying English books under an electric fan. Most surprising of all, her home had internal plumbing that reminded him of the water infrastructure in his own home.

“We have everything,” Alka tai told him.

Yet the city withheld one precious service longer than the rest: water.