Hard measures for drinking water in India

Women fill their pitchers with drinking water from a "virda", a small opening made by villagers manually to collect water, from the dried-up Banas river at Sukhpur village, north of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad May 12, 2011. At least 30 virdas have been dug up by villagers in the river. Villagers walk two and a half kilometres to draw drinking water from them, and they say it takes 30-40 minutes to fill a five-litre jar. Occasionally the villagers get their supply of drinking water from municipal tankers but most of the time they depend on the virdas before the monsoon arrives in the region. This year, the country has forecast a normal monsoon. Picture taken May 12, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]