Why are our taps running dry?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chennai, São Paulo, Mexico City, Tehran, Cape Town - these cities have all faced the threat of a ‘Zero Day’, or, having no fresh water left in their taps.
The UN says we’re entering a ‘water bankruptcy’ era, meaning our water ‘current accounts’ are running empty, while our ‘savings accounts’ - the long term stores of water deep underground - have been depleted, with some beyond repair.
So how did we get here?
From clearing forests for cattle grazing, to thirsty AI data centres, Rajan Datar examines the pressures on our global water supply and looks for solutions.
Contributors: Jayshree Vencatesan, Co-founder, Care Earth Trust, India Augusto Getirana, research scientist at NASA's Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, USA Prof Bridget Scanlon, Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas, USA Dr Jie-Sheng Tan Soo, Director, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, National University of Singapore
Presenter: Rajan Datar Producer: Phoebe Keane Researcher: Evie Yabsley Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Production Management Assistant: Liam Morrey
(Photo: Indian women with empty plastic pots protest as they demand drinking water. Credit: Arun Sankar/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | Welcome to the Inquiry on the BBC World Service. I'm Rajan Data. |
| 0:16.2 | Jaishri wakes up one morning and she's thirsty. She pulled herself out of bed, into the kitchen and |
| 0:23.0 | turns on the tap. But then nothing comes out. She tries to take a shower, no water there either. |
| 0:30.4 | As she goes outside, she realizes it's not just her. All her neighbors are shouting and complaining |
| 0:36.4 | to. |
| 0:42.2 | The water in her city of Chennai in India had run out. |
| 0:45.3 | But this hasn't just happened to Chennai. |
| 0:49.3 | It's one of the largest cities in the world, and it is running out of water. |
| 0:53.7 | Taps are fast becoming dry in more than a hundred suburbs and townships. |
| 0:56.8 | So, Paulo seems to have missed the rainy season this year. |
| 1:01.8 | The UN says the planet has entered the global water bankruptcy era. |
| 1:07.9 | In other words, it's not just our current account, rivers, reservoirs and canals that are running empty, but our savings account, the long-term sources of water |
| 1:12.2 | underground that are being dangerously depleted. And in some places, that is said to be |
| 1:18.5 | irreversible. So how have we got here? Climate change is certainly having an impact on global |
| 1:25.8 | water supplies, but there are other human behaviours which have brought us to the brink. |
| 1:31.8 | On the inquiry this week, we're asking, |
| 1:35.1 | why are our taps running dry? |
| 1:40.0 | Part 1, Urban sprawl. |
| 1:43.3 | Music Part 1, Urban Spraw I Urban Sprole I grew up in a place called Rajamandreve. |
| 1:53.3 | And we were living on the banks of the river. |
| 1:55.8 | Sounds very beautiful and romantic. |
... |
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