What are the reasons of water crisis in India ?
Water is the most valuable natural resource as it is essential for human survival and life on earth. However, the availability of freshwater for human consumption is highly under stress because of a variety of factors. This crisis of water scarcity is most visible in India as well as in other developing countries.
Water scarcity is an ongoing water crisis in India that affects nearly 1 million people each year. In addition to affecting the huge rural and urban population, the water scarcity in India also extensively affects the ecosystem and agriculture. India has only 4% of the world’s fresh water resources despite a population of over 1.3 billion people. In addition to the disproportionate availability of freshwater, water scarcity in India also results from drying up of rivers and their reservoirs in the summer months, right before the onset of the monsoons throughout the country. The crisis has especially worsened in the recent years due to climate change which results in delayed monsoons, consequently drying out reservoirs in several regions. Other factors attributed to the shortage of water in India are a lack of proper infrastructure and government oversight and unchecked water pollution.
Several large cities of India have experienced water shortages in recent years, with Chennai being the most prominent in 2019. The shortage of water affected the entire city of 9 million people and resulted in the closure of several hotels, restaurants and businesses. According to a report by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), at least 21 major Indian cities, including the capital New Delhi will completely run out of groundwater by 2020. The report also noted that approximately 200,000 people die in India each year due to the lack of access to safe drinking water.
There are two types of Water Scarcity one is Physical and another one is Economic.
Physical water scarcity occurs when there is not enough water to meet all demands. Arid regions are most often associated with physical water scarcity, but an alarming new trends is an artificially created physical water scarcity due to over allocation and overdevelopment of water resources. Symptoms of physical water scarcity include, among other factors, severe environmental degradation and increasing occurrence of conflicts.
Economic water scarcity is caused by a lack of investment in water or a lack of human capacity to satisfy the demand for water, even in places where water is abundant. Symptoms of economic water scarcity include inadequate infrastructure development: people have trouble getting enough water for domestic and other purposes; high vulnerability to seasonal fluctuations: floods and drought; and inequitable distribution of water, even when infrastructure exists.
What is the status of water availability in India?
- India receives 4000 bcm (billion cubic metres) rainfall each year. Out of this, 1869 bcm remains after evaporation = The actual availability is only 1137 bcm.
- Even in that 1137 bcm of water, there is a lot of temporal as well as regional variations in the availability.
- For instance, on the one side, there are water surplus states such as Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and on the other side, there are water scarce states such as Maharashtra (Vidarbha, Beed), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat.
- Moreover, some states that are known to be water abundant such as Punjab, Haryana have their own issues.
What are the reasons for this crisis ?
Lack of local rainwater harvesting structures:
There is a huge availability of fresh and soft rainwater but mostly it falls and flows to the ocean or drainages. Use of rainwater to replenish most of India’s important water sources such as underground aquifers, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs require its due attention. We need to send rainwater back to groundwater for our future requirement.
Uneven distribution of water:
Certain regions have surplus amounts of water for their need while others face perennial droughts for most of the year. For instance, Drought is a recurrent phenomenon in Andhra Pradesh where no district is entirely free of droughts. Rajasthan is one of the most drought-prone areas of India.
Overexploitation:
- In India, groundwater fulfils nearly 80% of irrigation requirement, this has resulted in a fast depletion of groundwater sources.
- Free power and inefficient utilisation of water by farmers has added to the issue of groundwater depletion.
- The groundwater and sand extraction from most river beds and basins has turned unsustainable.
- Tanks and ponds are encroached upon.
- Over extraction and of water by Industries
- Dug-wells and bore wells are carelessly built to slide deeper and deeper to suck water from greater depths.
Increasing demand:
Population growth, industrialization, rapid urbanisation, rising needs of irrigation and increase in domestic water usage have accelerated the demand for water. Since urbanization increases in India at a rapid pace = water demand will increase rapidly as city dwellers consume more water than rural people.
Urbanisation further increases water scarcity:
- Currently, about 285 million or 33% of India’s total population resides in urban areas. By 2050 this figure will reach 50%.
- Rapid urbanisation is adding to the water scarcity issue in the country.
- Presence of buildings, tar, and cement roads = even if a city like Mumbai gets good rains, the rainwater is not retained in the area as the water is not allowed to percolate underground.
- Therefore, water required for cities is largely drawn from neighbouring villages and far-off rivers and lakes = threatening the availability in those areas.
- Large cities also generate large quantities of urban sewage which pollutes the freshwater sources and ocean waters. However, only about 20% of urban wastewater is currently treated globally. In India, the figure is even lower.
Shift to cash-crops:
Water is being diverted from food crops to cash crops that consume an enormous quantity of water.
Inefficient cultivation practices:
- In India, around 70% of the population is still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood.
- Since the adoption of Green Revolution in the 1960s, nearly 50% of the food production comes from irrigated land.
- But inefficient cultivation practices have led to the flooding of fertile land which in turn has caused salinization, siltation of reservoirs, etc. = causing groundwater reserves of major agricultural states to be depleted at an alarming rate.
Water Pollution:
- Release of industrial and domestic waste, including urban sewage, into rivers, lakes, and estuaries has polluted freshwater sources at an alarming rate in India = those fresh water sources are not fit for drinking or other activities.
- Eutrophication of surface water and coastal zones is expected to increase almost everywhere leads to nitrogen pollution.
Let’s start harvesting rainwater,
It will be our gift to future generations..!
Vardhman Envirotech
India’s Passionate Rainwater Company.