A chronic water shortage in the Indian city of Mumbai could put a dampener on a popular Hindu festival normally celebrated with wild "rain dances" and riotous fights using powdered paint.
The municipal authorities in India's financial capital have issued an edict to Holi revellers not to waste drinking water on Monday and vowed to crack down on anyone caught misusing precious supplies.
Holi -- also called the Festival of Colours -- is a public holiday, marking the end of winter and the arrival of spring. It is particularly popular in northern India and other parts of the world with large Hindu populations.
Last year India suffered its worst monsoon rains since 1972 and saw water levels in the six lakes that supply Mumbai plunge. At one point, officials even warned that some suburbs could have just 20 days water left.
With the start of the annual wet season in June, the authorities are concerned about a repeat and have reportedly mulled further cuts, including turning off the taps completely in certain areas for one day each week.
"As the city is reeling under a water shortage people should avoid using drinking water for non-potable purposes, especially rain dances," local government official Anil Diggikar told the Hindustan Times on Friday.
"They can use non-potable water for Holi," he was quoted as saying.
Mumbai's mayor, Shraddha Jadhav, has also asked the municipal authority to form teams to conduct strict checks on Holi parties, many of which are organised by co-operative housing societies.
"We have decided not to provide water tankers for rain dances and requested people to refrain from the use of potable water for Holi celebrations, but it is necessary to have a team in place to keep check," she said.
She also called for a change in the law to make the misuse of water a criminal offence.
Water supply is becoming a major issue in India, with a study released last November suggesting that the country's water needs will double by 2030, as its billion-plus population expands.
The 2030 Water Resources Group said that agricultural expansion to meet the country's burgeoning food demands will suck up most supplies, calling for new investment and policies to stem the gap between supply and demand.
Another study published in Nature magazine last August said population growth, irrigation and development had put pressure on water supplies across India, where groundwater management is poor.
Shortages could trigger social conflict, the report's authors said.
Last December, one person died in Mumbai during a violent protest calling for an end to water cuts.
Mumbai needs four billion litres (1.1 billion US gallons) of drinking water a day to meet the needs of its estimated 18 million residents but can currently only supply 3.3 billion litres.
A number of schemes have been proposed to address the issue, including setting up costly desalination plants.
Cloud-seeding experiments have been conducted while India's star cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been drafted in to front the local council's "Save Water" campaign.
Gita Kavarana, head of the water management programme at the Centre for Science and Environment, said lack of rain was not the only cause of water shortages in Mumbai and other Indian cities.
"They (municipal authorities) are not doing anything to manage demand and say how people can be motivated to use less," she told AFP.
"Nobody is thinking. They think water will come to the lakes without them having to do anything about it."
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