In Madanpur Khadar, Delhi, tanker trucks supplied neighbourhoods without municipal water connections. A truck scheduled for 10 a.m. might arrive as late as 3 p.m., and residents could not leave their lane because its horn sounded only twice. Field observations counted about forty people waiting at a typical point.
Some returned two or three times to fill containers. Committees of three or four women prevented queue-jumping and contacted drivers when deliveries were late. The water line consumed more than the thirty minutes after arrival: uncertainty held residents' time for hours before the truck appeared.