In a parched Indian village where there is no running water, men are marrying multiple women so they can fetch it for the family.
For
villagers in Denganmal in western India, the only drinking water comes
from two wells at the foot of a nearby rocky hill - a spot so crowded
that the sweltering walk and wait can take hours.
For Sakharam Bhagat, and for many of his neighbours in the village 85 miles from Mumbai, the answer was a 'water wife'.
Bhagat, 66, now has three wives, two of whom he married solely to ensure his household has enough water to drink and cook with.
'I
had to have someone to bring us water, and marrying again was the only
option,' said Bhagat, who works as a day labourer on a farm in a nearby
village.
'My first wife was busy with the kids. When my second wife fell sick and was unable to fetch water, I married a third.'
Bhagat
and his family are suffering the consequences of a critical shortage of
safe drinking water in India's villages, as well as the fallout from
the most severe drought that his state, Maharashtra, has faced in a
decade.
