Dear readers,

As the harsh summer continues to singe and parch cities, the need for water, besides other cooling solutions, is greater than ever. Yet, people, especially the vulnerable, struggle to meet their daily water needs. Cities experience water shortages when water is most needed; the gap between demand and supply rises. But the available water is hardly distributed in an equitable way. A 2018 report from global advocacy group WaterAid ranked India top among the list of countries with the worst access to clean water close to homes — 163 million Indians were living this way.^[1] Access to water, which makes all the difference in the scorching heat, is far from even or equitable. Even if access is ensured, adequate and reliable, supply is another story altogether as taps run dry. Question of Cities looks at the disparity in water distribution, the inequity in water access, as temperatures rise to unbearable levels.

QoC Editorial argues that water access and equity are critical underpinnings of a dignified life but gets compromised as vast numbers struggle to get water in summers. These are rarely paid attention to even as governments cite shortages to build more large-scale water projects in verdant areas on the outskirts of cities or extract groundwater to alarming levels while ignoring wastewater recycling which is barely 28 percent in urban India. With AI data centres coming up rapidly in cities, the problems of unequal access to water (and power) are set to intensify. This demands policies for water use, sooner than later. Read it here.

Around 1,000 of the 1,400 families in Ganpat Patil Nagar in Mumbai’s Borivali received piped water in 2021, after 23 years of struggle, write Multimedia Journalist Jashvitha Dhagey and architect-illustrator Nikeita Saraf. Water distribution in Mumbai has been historically inequitable and remains so. To access municipal piped water – a public good – slum dwellers filed applications, submitted documents, pursued their case with the local municipal office for years, supported by Pani Haq Samiti, the water rights collective whose PIL in the Bombay High Court in 2014, eventually forced the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to roll out its ‘Water for All’ policy in 2022. Read it here.

What do extreme heat and struggle for water cost India? There’s heat-related loss of lives that India does not count in a serious or sustained way yet, there’s loss of productivity – every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature cuts India’s average crop yields by nearly 8 percent – there’s an alarming loss of groundwater with states like Delhi, Punjab and Haryana at a critical stage, there’s a rise in power demand, people spend unreasonably high amounts to buy water, and millions of women lose days in fetching water. All these facts are in the Fact Sheet, by Ankita Dhar Karmakar, that deserves to be book-marked. Read it here.

Away from the national headlines, people in towns and villages across India from Jaipur and Indore to Delhi and Palghar have held water protests this summer, as the brutal heat, depleting water levels and its mis-management led to acute water shortages. Residents protested in various ways – residents of Devprayag in Uttarakhand took out a torch rally; Indore’s politicians led the protests for water; in Palghar, Maharashtra, women marched with empty pots. Team QoC throws the spotlight on these protests. Read it here.

As most cities in India record temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, the warning signs of climate change cannot be ignored. Over the years, researchers have, through their studies and reports, detailed the impact of extreme heat. It is high time cities acted to reduce the impact and worked on better water management. Team QoC puts together a Compendium of ten reports and studies which deep-dive into heat risks, water scarcity, AI and water use, and solutions. Read it here.

In our regular section, News Digest, read about weaker monsoon in India as El Nino tightens grip; India revives equity and climate finance debate at Bonn climate talks; how Bangladeshi farmers are severely hit because of collapsing water system; the Global Justice Report aims at new and equal vision for global progress in the 21st century; data centres electricity usage in 2025 equals 10 countries, states an UN report.

Hope you find this edition engaging and worthwhile. We would love to hear from you at [email protected]. If you haven’t yet subscribed to Question of Cities, do so here and share our work on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Shobha 
June 12, 2026