India, April 20 -- There was a time when water tankers in Pune announced the arrival of summer. You would spot them in March-April, grumble about them in May-June, and by July, with the first spell of rain, they would recede into the background again, even as their service continued without noise.

That rhythm has quietly broken.

Drive through NIBM, Undri, Mohammadwadi or the stretches around Sus and Bavdhan today, and the tankers are not a seasonal sight anymore. They line up outside housing societies through the year, engines idling, hoses coiled like routine equipment rather than emergency gear. Security guards no longer ask who called the tanker; they wave it in as if it were an emergency service. Many housing societies in these subu...