With even the tail-end of the failed monsoon playing truant, the entire Saurashtra region, barring Junagadh district, has been gripped by severe water scarcity. Special prayers and offerings for rain have failed. Dams are dry, and water at other sources is getting scarcer by the day.

Despite the planning, municipal corporations and Nagar Palikas find themselves in trouble. Officials are unsure of what will happen in the next few months.

``It gives me the jitters!'' says Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Raj Gopal. And Jamnagar Municipal Commissioner Pankaj Joshi says, ``Let's pray for rain.''

Surendranagar is on the verge of a drought. The Dholidhayra dam, the main source, has gone dry and the government has been forced to review the situation and release Rs 20 crore for sinking bore wells and laying pipelines. Residents are supplied drinking water once in seven days.

``Next week we don't know whether we will receive even a few bucketfuls or not,'' says Shaktisinh Jhalla, a worker at the district collectorate.

If that is the situation in Surendranagar city, it is even worse in the interior villages of this drought-prone district. Women walk seven kilometres daily to fetch a few potfuls of turbid water from water holes. The water is dirty, unpotable. It gives them diarrhoea.

In Rajkot, the inevitable has happened. Rajkot and adjoining Jetpur will get water brought by train from Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The Rajkot Municipal Corporation says it has water enough to last a month, if used sparingly. But in the districts, civic bodies are at loggerheads over the use of water from available sources. All that citizens do is spew venom at the administration while chagdawallas make money ferrying water.

The situation is much the same in Jamnagar, where water is piped every alternate day. Municipal Commissioner Pankaj Joshi says the water that has collected in Und Dam may sustain them for a couple of months more with rationing. ``After that we will have problems,'' he said.

A good first spell of rain eased the pressure on Amreli municipality, as the water level rose in the Khodiyar Dam, enough to last several months. However, the interior talukas of Babara, Liliya, Lathi and Jafrabad continue to bear the brunt. One vexing problem that the villagers face here is the high fluoride content in the ground water, which means it cannot be used for domestic purposes.