印度3.3億人陷旱災 珍貴水資源竟先給產業用
(Reuters) Haribhau Kamble, an unemployed labourer in India's richest state of Maharashtra, is forced to queue for hours in scorching heat to fetch water even as the government puts on trains to ship water to the region parched by back-to-back drought years.
正如坎伯一樣，馬哈拉施特拉邦有數以百萬計的印度人只能無助地面對這個情況。該邦正遭逢40年來最嚴重的旱災，作物荒蕪，牲畜死亡，水庫空可見底，水力發電量也也銳減。專家表示，水資源管理不當，掌權的政治人物運作把較多的水供應給產業界，使得情況更為嚴重。
Like Kamble, millions of Indians have been hung out to dry in the state with the worst drought in four decades ravaging crops, killing livestock, emptying reservoirs and slowing hydroelectric power output. Mismanagement of water resources, with powerful politicians pushing for bigger supplies to industries, have made the situation worse, experts say.
"The government says it is bringing water by train every day, but we are getting water once a week," Kamble said, after standing in line for three hours to fill two pitchers at a tap in Latur district, 500 km (300 miles) southeast of Mumbai in drought-stricken Marathwada region.
當地居民冀望每天一輛50節車廂的運水火車能解決供水短缺的問題，但他們卻相當失望，因為火車運來再由槽車載到各村莊的250萬公升用水，無法滿足拉杜爾區50萬人和馬拉斯瓦達區1900萬人的用水需求。
Locals had been hoping a 50-wagon daily water train would ease shortages, but they were disappointed as the 2.5 million litres carried by the train and ferried by tankers to villages was not enough to meet the needs of Latur's half a million people and Marathwada's 19 million.
Marathwada, home to many sugar mills in Maharashtra - the nation's top producer, is one of the several regions in India that received below-average June-September rains in 2015. New Delhi estimates that overall 330 million people - a quarter of the country's population - are currently affected by drought.
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