AFTER two successive dry years, 330m people in India, around a quarter of the population, are facing acute water shortages. A scorching summer is at its peak: destitute farmers are committing suicide and tanks are running dry. Officials in Madhya Pradesh, in central India, have deployed armed guards to protect a fast-depleting reservoir. Last month, in a last-ditch effort to save lives, trains carried millions of litres of water to Latur, a parched district 400km east of Mumbai. In mid-April, an “above-normal” rain forecast by the India Meteorological Department was a godsend for a country reeling from its worst water crisis in four decades. Earlier this month, it predicted the onset of the monsoons on June 7th.
