Shobhit Tiwari, 34, a techni cal architect specialising in data science and Artificial Intelligence, moved into his apartment in Bengaluru’s Whitefield expecting the conveni ences that come with paying a premium for a modern gated community. The society houses between 1,000 and 2,000 families in just two towers. Two-and-a-half years later, he found yellow water flowing from the taps. In June, the water supply remained discoloured for two to three weeks, prompting residents to stop using it entirely, switch to bottled water and raise the alarm. At least two to three children were reportedly hospitalised, with a doctor attributing their illness to poor water quality.“Had I known about the issue earlier, I believe it would have influenced my decision to buy this prop erty,” says Tiwari. “Water quality remains the single biggest concern in the society.”Tiwari’s experience is neither an isolated incident nor simply a case of bad luck. It points to an emerging problem in some of India’s rapidly expanding residential complexes: hundreds or thousands of families, multiple towers, a brochure packed with amenities—and a gated community that does not always deliver the basic services its residents thought they were paying for.