Welcome to the Inquiry on the BBC World Service.

I'm Ruth Alexander.

Each week one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. The brightly colored plastic pots make a cheerful scene, but there's nothing cheerful about the people holding them.

Standing in a queue for an hour and a half now in close to

40 degree heat, they're waiting for water from a government tanker. Because two

months ago the TAPS stopped working in Chennai, South India's biggest city with a population

of more than 8 million people.

As tempers flare in the hot streets, fights have been breaking out.

There are similar scenes in Delhi, India's capital.

In fact, around a hundred million people across the country are on the front line of a water crisis.

A government report says demand for drinkable water will outstrip supply by 100% in just a decade.

And yet India is a diverse country surrounded by water, woven together with rivers and washed down with monsoons. To understand how this water-rich country could be

facing an unprecedented shortage of water, we're going to focus on the for now worst hit area. We're asking how can Chanise water crisis be solved.

Part 1, Waiting for the Rain.

I am 38

I am 38 years old.

I have never seen such a situation in my lifetime in Chennai where people have to spend so much of time,

so much of energy to get a little amount of water and still there is not enough water right now.

Our first expert witness, Jaran Vanquatason, a campaigner with the Civil Society movement,

Arapor Yachem in Chennai has been organizing protests about the water shortage.

There is a lot of anger, there is a lot of frustration.

On the southeastern coast of India, Chennai is reliant on monsoon rains for its water supply.

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