Who are the Water Mafia | Parched

[busy street sounds] [rhythmic music playing]

AMAN SETHI: Everyone buys water from the water mafia-- the rich, the poor, the middle class. That's because Delhi and its surroundings have about 24 million people. And anywhere between 30% to 40% don't have access to municipal water. And as the black market water trade became more organized, the trucks got bigger, the people who were controlling it got richer. Now the water mafia behaves in a way that this water will last forever, but as temperatures continue to rise, the mafia is finally going to run out of water. And that's when we're really going to have a problem.

AARON WOLF (VOICEOVER): The status of the world's fresh water supply today is a crisis as big as anything out there. [people arguing in non-english] Less than 1% of the world's water is accessible for human use. Populations are going up. As economies grow and countries develop, they use more and more water. And we're polluting what is, making it less and less accessible. [PEOPLE ARGUING LOUDLY IN NON ENGLISH]

MARCUS KING (VOICEOVER): Water scarcity is with us here and now. Warmer temperatures, less predictable rains will all combine to make societies a little less stable.

AARON WOLF: People generally have three sets of responses to water scarcity. They can adapt if they have the resources, they can move, or they can suffer and die. And if they're moving, this becomes a security concern worldwide.