Ravinder Kumar wades through ankle-deep sludge every day to leave his home in Sharma Enclave in northwest Delhi – yet inside the brick tenement, he does not have a drop to drink. Surrounded by filth, the 55-year-old twists his plastic taps regularly, hoping for relief. “Water comes once every three days, and even then, you only get clean water for an hour,” the father of three told CNN on Monday. “It’s difficult to bathe. The water is black at times. We wash once every four or five days.”
Kumar is one of millions of residents in the Indian capital suffering sporadic water shortages due to rising ammonia levels in the Yamuna River that last week forced six of the city’s nine major water plants to shut down.Water from the Yamuna – considered sacred and worshipped by millions – has become so polluted by ammonia from industrial waste that water plants have been unable to treat it.
