Over the last decade and more, men from Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district have been flocking to Mumbai. They don’t have big dreams. Neither are they hoping for a change in fortune. Their one wish—to become part of the large and growing network of tankerwallahs, supplying water to the city.

Nandlal Santlal Prajapati was a farmer, before he arrived here 12 years ago. “I used to grow rice, wheat and potato,” he tells mid-day, “Then a friend in the village who worked with a water tanker supplier in Mumbai, convinced me to join him. He promised to teach me how to drive, and get me a job.” Until before that, Prajapati says he hadn’t even driven a vehicle. “But I managed to learn and within one-and-a-half years.” Prajapati has since been given charge of a 10,000 litre-water tank that serves different parts of the city. Working on a 12-hour shift daily, with no weekends to his name, the only time Prajapati takes a break is during the monsoon, when the water needs of the city’s residents are at bare minimum.