NEW DELHI — The protesters were chiefly women, but instead of placards, they brought empty pots. The vessels brandished by the roughly 100 women at the protest last month at a government office in Tiruchirappalli, in Tamil Nadu State, of plastic, brass or earthenware, were what they use to collect their households’ daily supply of water.

The women were there to ask the government officials to fix the water pipes in their area. The taps had run dry four days earlier, forcing them to buy relatively expensive water from private tankers. Water shortages are endemic in India in the hot months and can turn into far more lethal droughts. But that the protesters were mostly women was a reflection of the fact that, in India and in some other parts of the world, like sub-Saharan Africa, water collection and management is women’s work.

As the heat and dust sweep over the plains of the Subcontinent, dragging large swaths of the country into the long dry months of summer, women bear the brunt of water management. But they are also crucial to any significant improvements in the water supply.

The involvement of women in initiatives like the pani panchayat, or water councils, in rural India, for instance, has been crucial to ensuring more reliable sources of drinking water. Set up by nongovernmental groups, the water councils bring together women from villages and small towns to lobby district officials for better pipelines and cleaner drinking water. Often, the women also learn about traditional ways of obtaining water, like collecting rain, or campaign to get the local municipality to clean up old wells and other water sources.