Gujarat drought sparks protests

Residents have protested across the Indian state of Gujarat over the failure of local authorities to cope with an ongoing drought crisis.

The cities of Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Junagadh are the worst affected, with residents getting water only once in three days.

Water supplies come by tanker but officials concede they have been unable to meet demand.

Soaring temperatures

This admission comes as summer temperatures have already hit above 40 degrees centigrade.

Over half the western state's villages have been hit by the drought, which is reckoned to be the worst in 100 years.

"All our hopes are now on the monsoons which come during the end of June," said SM Dave, Gujarat's joint secretary for relief operations.

The authorities have sent a delegation to Delhi to demand about $200m in relief aid.

Cattle abandoned

Water scarcity has also hit wheat and groundnut crops Gujarat's western Saurashtra, and many farmers unable to get fodder have abandoned cattle along the roads.

State authorities say over 9,000 villages are drought-hit but voluntary relief agencies reckon the total is far higher.

Over 300,000 state-backed relief workers have been released into the region, with bore wells dug up and pipelines laid to pump ground water.

K C Mahapatra, the state's Relief Commissioner, said over 10 million kilograms of fodder are at government-owned store houses and more is being stockpiled in neighbouring states.

Aid pledged

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, promised what he called "liberal aid" during a visit to the state last week but the exact amount is not yet known.

Gujarat has a history of water shortages, but observers say the situation is worse this time since the ground water level has also depleted.

Officials blame building contractors and farmers for the unplanned digging of bore wells which they say has led to a sharp drop in ground water levels.

Last week, experts working for the international relief organisation Oxfam warned that some areas of neighbouring Pakistan are not far from facing a disaster on the scale of the famine in Ethiopia.