 India is facing its worst water crisis ever. Media channels across the world reported that by 2030, India's per capita water availability will be down to 1140 cubic metres. It was 5177 cubic metres in 1951. Reports also speculate that by the next year, 21 major cities in India will be out of groundwater. They will experience day zero. An interesting point is that what we are facing right now is not a drought. News reports of floods and overflowing water bodies point to the fact that rainfall this year has at various points been even above average. But by the end of this monsoon, the water crisis will still be looming over our heads. Mainstream media channels will have you believe that the water crisis is only a result of the over-exploitation of groundwater, poor monsoons, urbanisation and even overpopulation. This gives the impression that everyone is equally to blame. But is that the case? Let's take the example of Shimla. Shimla has been facing an acute water shortage for decades. One of the first steps taken to address this was the supply of water through tankers. Shimla has a vast network of pipeline that runs across the city. These pipelines are so old that there is leakage during supply. But instead of investing in repairing them, the government opted to encourage tankers. These tankers do not provide water to colonies from far from the roads, are very expensive and waste a lot of water. Political activists allege that this was a step to benefit private tanker owners who were close to the state and the municipal governments. Shimla is also a tourist hub with a large number of unregistered hotels. Many of these are in residential areas and consume their water resources leading to scarcity. The impact of all this is felt most in areas inhabited by the poor. As mentioned before, Shimla's water crisis alarm went off long back. But the state administration did not take policy decisions to stop builders from establishing hotels leading to greater stress on water resources. Let's now take a look at Marathara region of Maharashtra, which has eight districts. Experiences of years past show that this region receives the poorest monsoon in all of the state. Out of the 200 odd sugarcane factories in Maharashtra, over 50 are in Marathara region. Sugarcane, which has only grown in 4% of the land, guzzles 80% of the water resources of this region. A former member of the Maharashtra state planning board called it a policy-induced failure. But why do farmers grow sugarcane? Most of them take to it despite not getting a good deal as it is a cash crop and is purchased by factories directly. Less water-intensive crops such as rice and millet don't find favour as the government which procures them is slow to pay. Let's take the case of Orangabad district in Marathara. 16 major beer-producing brands such as Kingfisher, Karlsberg, Foster and Heineken are located in this water-starved region. Many of these water guzzlers are owned by prominent politicians. This is in addition to 129 units manufacturing Indian-made foreign liquor and country liquor in the region. According to local activists, over 60% of the water in the Jayakwari Dam in Orangabad is utilised by breweries and distilleries. Tankers are allowed to draw water to supply to these breweries and distilleries despite the water falling below dead storage level. Another aspect to this crisis is the bottled water and packaged beverages industry. Over 6,000 licensed bottlers are registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards. On an average, a single bottler selling packaged drinking water extracts somewhere between 5,000 to 20,000 litres of groundwater every hour. To top this off, multinational corporations such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola that package drinking water acquire it at a very low rate. In Thane in 2003, for instance, the government was selling water to these companies at 5 paisa per litre that they would brand and sell for 10 to 20 rupees. Of course, all of these are just a few glimpses of the nature of the water crisis affecting India. There are many other aspects too such as the lack of investment in building strong irrigation systems in rural areas or the unrestricted construction on top of water pathways in urban areas. But in many cases, the water crisis boils down to the question of seeing water as a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. So next time you hear of India's water crisis don't forget to ask the question, who's behind it?