A girl carries a pitcher after filling it 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.
Women carrying empty pitchers walk to draw water from a well near the banks of the dried-up Dharji lake at Dharji village, west of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, May 14, 2011. The village has six wells but only one of them has water. In the afternoon women from the village must wait for two to three hours for the water level to rise before they are able to draw water. Also, it is a two to three kilometres' walk to the well. Authorities say water levels have dropped due to a decrease in rainfall. This year, the country has forecast a normal monsoon. Picture taken May 14, 2011.
Women gather around a well to draw drinking water near the banks of the dried-up Vakaria lake at Vakaria village, west of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, May 14, 2011
A woman fills her pitcher 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
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
