Water management

The Harappans cared a great deal about water management and cleanliness. Homes often had separate bathing areas, connected to a larger network of drains that usually ran below the streets and carried the waste water away. Below the streets, not along them: the drains were laid as part of the plan.

In Mohenjo-daro, people drew water from hundreds of brick-lined wells. Elsewhere it may have come from ponds, nearby streams or reservoirs (large natural or human-made places where water is stored).

At Dholavira, in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, the largest reservoir was 33 metres long. Measure your classroom or a school corridor and compare!

At Dholavira at least six large reservoirs were built of stone or even cut into the rock. Most were linked by underground drains, so water could be collected and shared out well. The Rann of Kutch is one of the driest places in India: these reservoirs were how the city stayed alive.

The book then turns the stones into questions. Imagine how many workers it took to build such a network. Who organised them and gave them exact instructions? How were they paid, when there was no money of the kind we have today?

The reservoirs had to be cleaned from time to time. Was there a local authority in charge of looking after them? What does this tell us about the city's ruler and how it was run? Archaeologists still discuss these questions, and the answers are not always final.