“Water comes once every three days, and today I couldn’t even wash clothes because none came,” says Anju Devi, a resident of Dundahera village. Her family of 11 shares an underground tank meant to last them through dry spells. Last month, they spent Rs 6,000 on tankers alone.

“We use it cautiously, like the saying goes, boond boond se ghada bhar jaata hai,” says Roshni Devi, 55, who runs a small shop near her home in Dundahera in Sector 21 and has watched the crisis worsen for two decades.

Dundahera is among the dozen “tail-end areas” in Gurugram – localities at the far end of the city’s water network that bear the worst of every summer shortage. By the time water travels through the system to reach them, pressure has dropped and supply has thinned, so any citywide shortfall lands on them first. The list includes sectors 21, 22, 23, 54, 55, 57, 59, 63, 63A, 70, 95 and Dundahera village.

Newslaundry visited several of these localities and spoke to residents, RWA representatives, water pump operators and municipal staff.

How the water is supposed to reach Gurugram

Gurugram’s piped water originates at two treatment plants, Basai and Chandu Budhera, drawing raw water from the Gurgaon Water Supply Canal and the NCR Canal. Combined, they treat around 670 mega litres per day (MLD). From there, water moves through master pipelines – as wide as 1,200mm and 1,300mm, operated by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) – into underground tanks (UGTs) scattered across neighbourhoods. From the UGTs, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) runs boosting stations that push water into local pipelines and into homes.

The gap between supply and demand is widening. A 2021 TERI assessment projected that by 2025, Gurugram’s population would reach roughly 4.3 million, pushing demand to 874.3 MLD – against treatment capacity that, even now, sits at 670 MLD. A fourth treatment unit at Chandu Budhera, meant to add 100 MLD, has missed three successive deadlines since June 2024. An RTI response from February........

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