Indore under water emergency

THE Malwa region of western Madhya Pradesh is facing acute water shortage. Most reservoirs in the region dried up as early as December following a scant monsoon. While Ujjain residents are getting water supply for an hour in four days, Indore has declared water emergency from February to June 2009.
This is the first time an Indian city has declared water emergency. Though there is no legal provision for declaring such emergency, Indore Municipal Commissioner C B Singh said the move is validated by the fact that the mayor-in-council has passed the decision.
The emergency will involve measures for preventing water loss, freeing public tubewells from encroachment, acquiring private borewells, tackling corruption in water distribution and ban and fines on water misuse (see