Jan 2007-Backstory: India's no-flow faucets | csmonitor.com

Backstory: India's no-flow faucets | csmonitor.com: "

Hyderabad's desire to become India's next great global city – the next Silicon Valley spiced by chutney and chilies – sometimes seems pathological. There is Hi-Tec City, where buildings of tinted glass double as ostentatious statements of India's global arrival. There is Genome Valley, heart of India's nascent biotechnology industry. And there is a 100-mile beltway under way, along with a new international airport with no shortage of sinuous shapes.

Yet for 46 of every 48 hours, Hyderabad cannot deliver one simple staple to its people – water. Those who have the means survive by storing water – when it comes – in rooftop tanks so their taps never run dry. Those who do not live life in 46-hour increments, rationing water and thronging taps at communal wells in lines that last two hours or more.

Now, however, this city of 6 million is undertaking an experiment that could change how it – and perhaps the rest of India – uses one of its most basic resources. It is a modest beginning: Hyderabad is offering continuously flowing water to one neighborhood. But the plan holds significance for the whole nation, as one of the world's most powerful economies struggles to meet increasing water demands amid chronic fraud, waste, and neglect.

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