Sai Baba and extreme water scarcity in Anantapur for years

Sathya Sai Baba explained the water scarcity cause (as experienced in Anantapur District and other states):-

Report from The Hindu – just before late rains came at last some days ago. A temporary relief from chronic water problems in those parts

“Why does water scarcity arise? When there is a decline in Sathya (Truth) and Dharma (Righteousness), the level of water in the earth also declines. As compassion and love have diminished in human heart, water has become scarce. This problem is not due divine fury as some people may imagine. It is because of the rise in evil qualities in man. If people strictly adhere to the path of truth and righteousness, there will never be water scarcity.” (his words from his discourse of 6^th May 2000 Sanathana Sarathi, v.43, June 2000, #6, p.165)“ See Sathya Sai Baba explains water scarcity cause

Having often proclaimed himself a Supreme Incarnation of God (Purna Avatar) who is omniscient (all-knowing) and had come to save humanity, he was unable to provide enough rain to raise the sinking water table, which was the chief reason the Rayalaseema Water Project he asked his followers to carry out was such a failure. See http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/villagers-protest-water-scarcity/article3891446.ece

“Divine resolve is always true resolve. Remember there is nothing that divine power cannot accomplish. It can transmute earth into sky and sky into earth. To doubt this is to prove that you are too weak to grasp great things, the grandeur of the universe.” (43rd birthday Discourse, 23 November 1968) 

Sai Baba was claimed to have caused it to rain – or to not rain when unwanted – and he held that prayer and sacrifice  to the appropriate deity (Indra) could bring rain. Yet he failed to provide potable water in the Puttaparthi/Rayalaseema area, though the failure was covered up by all the powers-that-be connected to him. See http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/13/Sathya_Sai_water_projects.html

As long-term devoted server – ‘Divya’ or Eileen Weed – who lived with Sai Baba’s elder sister Venkamma for years wrote (November 21):
“Those of us who lived in Parthi knew that there were serious water problems in Puttaparthi village: at least half, and usually more, of buildings on most Parthi streets were without water (I know this as a fact when I lived there 2001-2005). Due to so many hundreds of buildings built and each one having its own bore well, the ground level water went down so much that many of the bore wells ran out of water. Naturally, the owners were loath to spend money to deepen the borewells, because often there was hardly a handful of residents in each of the lavish, multi-story luxury apartments. Of course, regulations about the number of bore wells were totally ignored due to generous bribes to officials. While I was living there, on the rare occasions that some Parthi villager would, in hushed whispers, speak out to me (in Telugu) about the water projects, they scoffed at it as nearly non-existent, at least as for as they were concerned.
Looks like giving inflated hope to the masses works better than making one’s own small Parthi town livable with water aplenty for its residents – even without water, who in the outside world will come to know? Because no one will speak out.” see Sri Satya Sai 87th birthday new water project

On the desperate water situation in Puttaparthi area:
Karuna Society at Enumulapalli, some miles from Puttaparthi,  wrote: “Our bore well in Karunapalli (Ahimsa Farm) has run dry. Very little water for the animals …!! Narendra has decided to bore a new well. The situation is very critical. There has been a little rain so the salad didnt dry up. The rain is causing different problems with the feeding of the maize grass to the cattle.”
Update  “Thursday…. The new bore well has not enough water. We are trying one more place. Village people objected, gave complaint to the office. we have a severe water shortage in the area. Most water pumps in the villages have run dry. The municipality is providing drinking water through tankers.  Since a few days there is little rain but not sufficient to fill the water level in the soil. As long as I am in India we have not experienced such a long spell of drought.” Update Friday: “The third bore no water. We have to make do with the first boring which will provide little water. If more rain will come then it will fill up.”

Deccan Chronicle 2013-03-22: Anantapur: The groundwater table has plummeted alarmingly in Anantapur district due to scanty rainfall and excess extraction of water. The government has banned the drilling of new borewells in 271 villages keeping in view the poor groundwater levels.

The Times of India 2013-07-20: BANGALORE: Bountiful rain over the past two weeks has filled all major dams, brought down power consumption and eased the tension between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over water-sharing. But it has failed to mitigate the all-important drinking water crisis. The reason for this is the overexploitation of groundwater that has led to drastic depletion of the water table in the state, prompting scientists to sound a danger signal.

Deccan Chronicle 2013-09-13: Anantapur: Heavy rains, filled most of the irrigation tanks in the drought hit Anantapur district. Many big tanks received huge inflows due to overflowing of canals and small rivers in the district. Already more than 100 villages were facing drinking water crisis, since one-and-a-half years, because of rain deficit in the district. The incessant rainfall is the only hope in increasing the groundwater table.