Before the water tanker rolled into one of New Delhi’s largest slums, Arvind Kumar was pacing between the gate of a public school and a tea seller’s stall hundreds of yards from his home, where he lives with nine members of his family. “There, it is coming,” Mr. Kumar shouted to a woman waiting on the slum’s edge. With their last stored drops now spent, and a heat wave searing the city, the two neighbors had decided to make sure the truck reached its destination. The woman boarded the 5,000-gallon tanker and guided its driver through a tight lane, past houses lined with thousands of jerrycans, many chained in place, and onto a stony plateau.

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Persons: Arvind Kumar, ” Mr, Kumar