A scorching summer, the hottest in a century, combined with an acute water crisis, has brought life to a halt for millions of Indians. Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, with 20 million residents has been in the throes of a water crisis for the last five months. If the drought continues, authorities will have to turn to cloud seeding to produce rain.
In nearby Pune, the city’s 35 lakh residents are reeling under 40 per cent water cuts which means that most parts of the city get water on alternate days. The four dams that supply water to the city have dried up and residents are forced to depend on water tankers which cost as much as Rs 1,000 per tanker.
In the capital, water supplies are down by 30 per cent and chief minister Shiela Dixit warns, “If the rains do not come soon, we are all going to be in big trouble.’
The situation is worse in the villages. The police has been called to guard the few remaining springs that provide water to the villages of Ranikhet in the Garwhal Himalayas. Angry villagers are gheraoing these water sources, demanding they be given additional water.
Entire villages across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have villagers queuing up for hours to get a single pot of water. Ganga Bai of Navsari village in Gujarat points out: “We work during the day and then stand in water queues through the night. There is only one well for the entire village. So, everyone has to wait his turn.”
A recent World Bank report had claimed that by 2020, most major Indian cities would run dry. If the monsoon does not live up to the expectation this year, the World Bank report would prove right a decade before its time.
India’s water crisis is largely due to the mismanagement of water resources, although over-pumping and pollution have proved the death knell of our water resources.
Environmentalist Mike Pandey, who has made several films on the rivers of India, says, “The water in our country is the most polluted in the world. Our rivers carry heavy metals much beyond permissible levels. Our rivers are also the dumping grounds of human excreta and industrial effulgents. It is not surprising that 98 per cent of deaths in our country are due to water-related diseases.”
Chairman of the Central Ground Water Board, B.M. Jha agrees that urgent steps are required to curb the excessive use of groundwater. The government will need to regulate groundwater usage and also to stagger the sowing season to reduce the peak water demand from building up.
“We have also been pressing for the placing of restriction on financial institutions which provide loans for the purchase of submersible pump rigs,” Jha explained.
State governments also need to be actively involved in the fight against the dropping water table. Farmers must be offered incentives to grow drought-resistant crops. Cropping patterns need to be changed and emphasis must be given to growing wheat and millets over crops like paddy and sugarcane,” Jha urged.
What he did not say, but which power experts claim, is the only way excessive groundwater depletion can be halted is by the imposition of a stiff tariff on electricity usage.
Power outages are a corollary of water woes. A major fall in hydropower generation due to inadequate water in rivers has resulted in severe power shortage across the country. The Bhakra Nangal water levels have dropped to 1,504 ft which is 90 ft lower than last year.
A senior official at the Central Electricity Authority points out that “against the target of 11,000 MW of capacity addition in 2008-09, we have achieved only 3,500 MW. What makes matters worse is that at present we have a 20,000 MW shortage in the country. Hydro generation has fallen considerably and will only pick up once the monsoons are here”.
Severe water shortage had already led to a growing number of conflicts across the country, with 90 per cent of India’s territory served by inter-state rivers.
The row over river Cauvery between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Godavari between Maharashtra and Karnataka, Narmada between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, are some of the bitterly fought conflicts imposing very high economic environmental costs.
But most importantly, water is the primary media through which climate impacts will be felt by humans and the environment.
Climate change is expected to worsen the water situation by causing erratic and unpredictable weather. This could drastically diminish the supply of water coming from rainfall and glaciers.
Ajit Tyagi, director-general of the Indian Metrological Department, admits that one of the effects of climate change on the monsoon is that “we are now witnessing heavy, but short-duration monsoon showers which is invariably accompanied by heavy flooding and displacement of thousands of people”.
India’s water crisis has serious implications for its 1.2 billion people. Demand has far outstretched supplies. Water infrastructure is crumbling, made worse by the poor water management. We need to make the whole issue of providing a safe and bountiful water supply a national priority in order to successfully ward off this impending crisis.