Health City Borewells Blamed for Water Crisis in Arilova Colony

Many people who live in a neighborhood called Arilova Colony in the city of Visakhapatnam, India, are running out of clean drinking water.

About 300,000 people are affected, and around 200,000 of them live in slums.

People believe big hospitals in an area called Health City are part of the problem.

The hospitals dug very deep wells, called borewells, that pull water from underground.

Because of this, the wells that residents depended on have dried up.

The problem got worse because there has been very little rain in the past two months.

City officials inspected the hospitals and found many of them had deep borewells.

Even hospitals that get water from the city had dug their own deep wells.

Officials want to check if the hospitals have permission for their wells and may take action against those that broke the rules.

They also plan to check tall apartment buildings that might be using groundwater.

Environmentalists say building the hospital area blocked the streams that fill the city's main water reservoir.