Last week as I watched Indian scientists crow with glee over having found ‘water on the moon’ and TV anchors burst with unconcealed pride, my own reaction was one of disbelief. In this moment of resurgent national pride, I hate to play spoilsport but it’s hard not to notice the surreal quality of our latest ‘achievement’. Dwell on it for a moment and you will see the absurdity of finding water on the moon when we have found it so hard to find adequate quantities of this vital beverage on Earth. If our scientists are so clever that they have been the first to find water on the moon, why is it so hard for them to help us find enough here in our land of depleted water resources and dying aquifers?

The news of our latest national triumph came on the day that I landed in Mumbai after a 16-hour flight from New York. And, I could not help but think of the vast stretch of squalid shanties that I had driven past on my way into the city. I could not help remembering that in these unsanitary habitations not a single child has access to clean water. Many die before they reach the age of five on account of the filthy water on which they are bred.

The real horror is that living standards in Mumbai’s shanties are better than they are in rural India. In our villages the chances of a child surviving till its fifth birthday are bleak. This is because standards of rural healthcare are abysmal and mothers are often illiterate and incapable of understanding the simple measures that would save a child’s life. One of the primary reasons for female illiteracy is that rural Indian women spend many hours in the day finding water for the family. Usually they walk miles and miles to find it.

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