Troubled Waters
Photo: Karan Madhok
With a potential scenario of a water Armageddon looming for India, Vipin Labroo argues that the fight to avert a total crisis must be no less than a national crusade.
India is the most populous country in the world, with a gargantuan need for water, and an uneven distribution of water resources that has made some amount of scarcity in certain regions inevitable. And yet, the calamity that we may soon face have experts projecting a far more dire and desperate situation than expected. Many believe that India is headed for a water catastrophe. For a nation as well endowed with rivers, lakes, ponds, myriad water bodies, and above all a more or less regular monsoon, this is deeply sad and disheartening.
According to a 2018 report by Neeti Ayog, a whopping 60 crore people, or half of India’s total population, stare at an extreme water crisis. Three-fourths of Indian households are not receiving water in their homes, and 84% of rural households are bereft of access to piped water. If that were not enough, a shocking 70 per cent of our nation's ground water is contaminated. For the fifth largest economy in the world, India’s 120th rank amongst 122 nations in the water quality index should rankle our conscience. To compound matters, groundwater, which accounts for 40 per cent of the nation’s water supply is extracted at a rate which is clearly nothing short of suicidal.
Are we then headed for a water Armageddon? Is there a cause for extreme worry, as we may be approaching a situation of a total water catastrophe?
In Punjab, which is the breadbasket of India, groundwater is being extracted faster than it is being replenished. Ten years ago, water that could be extracted at a depth of between 9-12 metres, is now extractable only at a depth of 18-21 metres. Access to water has become a tougher task even in the proverbial ‘land of the five rivers’.
The signs of a deepening water crisis are all around us. Water rationing is a common feature in even the major metros of the nation. Take the case of Gurugram, the glass and chrome ‘cyber city’, adjacent to the national capital. According to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), the city has water supply infrastructure for 570 MLD (millions of litres per day) against a demand of 650 MLD with the shortfall being met by groundwater and in some cases private tanker water supply. The situation is likely to be direr further afield.
Water tables have fallen drastically over the years, having gone down by thousands of feet in parts of Punjab, Haryana, and Andhra Pradesh. What’s more, rivers have started shrinking and some have even dried up. A case in point is the Banka River in Bengal which has ceased to be a navigable water-way, thanks to years of silting and dumping of waste that includes polythene. The Pallar once a vibrant river flowing in Tamil Nadu in northern Tamil Nadu does not exist anymore. Its river bed and adjoining once-upon-a-time farmlands have been turned into a motor racing-track.
Going by the gloomy statistics and figures that abound about India’s admittedly serious water crisis, one would seem that we are galloping towards a doomsday water scenario. Renowned filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor plans to depict this crisis in his much-delayed film Paani, which is about what else but a dysfunctional world facing a total water crisis.
However, India is much better placed than many nations in the Middle East, parts of Africa and some nations in our immediate neighbourhood with regard to access to water. As mentioned earlier in this article, India is reasonably well endowed with rivers and other water bodies and is blessed to receive plentiful rains every year. The problem seems to be in its management, which has long been recognized and understood by the government and a host of other organizations.
But, in the wasteful way that water is used in the country, it is evident that many in the nation seem to be oblivious to the impending catastrophe for this precious resource. The water crisis facing the country is even more acute and more dangerous than that of the much talked about air pollution we are subject to in the north of the country every winter. It is also more difficult to address.
And yet, India—more than any other country facing water distress—has the opportunity to tackle these issues. Experts feel that the way out is by bringing about the integration of surface and groundwater, drinking water, and water for irrigation on a departmental basis. Rain-fed agriculture needs to be encouraged given its importance with regard to its contribution to India’s food security. Excessive use of irrigation has led to the neglect and destruction of many otherwise useful water bodies, which needs to be reversed. The central government’s initiative to build 50,000 water bodies across the nation by August next year is a welcome step.
Three-fourths of Indian households are not receiving water in their homes, and 84% of rural households are bereft of access to piped water. For the fifth largest economy in the world, India’s 120th rank amongst 122 nations in the water quality index should rankle our conscience.
Crucially, concrete steps need to be taken and indeed are being taken to arrest the appalling depletion in the nation’s groundwater levels. For instance, in Punjab, the World Bank and the state government have joined hands in weaning farmers off an excessive reliance on groundwater to irrigate their crops. This has been achieved via an innovative scheme that pays farmers an incentive to conserve groundwater by rationalizing electricity consumption with regard to water used for irrigation. Remarkably, this has been achieved without experiencing a fall in crop yield.
Improved water management lies at the heart of the attempt to solve India’s water woes. The government department looking after water resources has joined hands with the World Bank on implementing what are called National Hydrology Projects (NHP). The idea is to better manage water by making informed decisions that are based on modern analytical tools and data gathered via automated sensors strategically deployed across all parts of the water cycle in real-time or near-time.
There is a fair deal of awareness amongst civil society groups as well who take various initiatives like reviving traditional water bodies and encouraging water harvesting across the breadth of the nation. The most prominent example of this is what Anna Hazare achieved in Ralegaon Sidhi.
India has the physical, financial, and technological means to overcome this impending crisis. More resources should perhaps be allotted by the government in water management, rather than in space exploration and putting our people on the moon—something that is a lower category of priority even in some of the richest countries in the world. Henceforth, all development projects should be undertaken after duly taking into consideration of the negative impact it might have on our water resources.
Water is the most important national asset and its management should not be left to chance. The best brains in the country should be employed to come to grips with the alarming situation faced by the country and its people. The people of the nation on their part need to step up to the plate and make it an important issue in their lives. Those who are privileged enough to have access to water in their homes should respect that fact and use it judiciously. They should have a stake in how this scarce resource is utilized and stop taking it for granted. Without water there is no life. That is something that should never be forgotten.
The fight to avert a total water crisis must be no less than a national crusade, that is every bit as important if not more important than making India the next technology or space superpower. Ever since the dawn of human civilizations, great cultures have risen and flourished for centuries, until a water crisis did them in. From the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization in the Indian sub-continent to the demise of the mighty Middle Eastern Akkadian empire and the mighty Mayan empire in the Americas, water woes have brought seemingly mighty civilizations to utter ruin. We overlook this impending catastrophe to our own peril.
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Vipin Labroo is a content creator, author and PR consultant. A member of the Nonfiction Authors Association, he has years of corporate experience working with an eclectic range of clients, writing press releases, articles, blogs, white papers, research reports, website content, eBooks and so on across segments like technology, business & marketing, internet marketing, healthcare, fashion, real estate, travel and so on. You can find him on Twitter: @labroovipin and Instagram: @vipin_labroo.
