Finding A Way Out Of India’s Deepening Water Stress

Context: Complexity and scale of water crisis in India calls for a locus-specific response.

Complexity and scale of water crisis in India

• Over reliance on groundwater sources: In rural areas, 80%-90% of drinking water and 75% of water used for agriculture is drawn from groundwater sources.
  • In urban areas, 50%-60% of water supply is drawn from groundwater sources.
• Demand-supply gap: Composite water management index, 2019 of NITI Aayog points out that-
  • 21 major cities (including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad) were on the brink of exhausting groundwater resources, affecting about 100 million people.
  • By 2030, water demand is projected to be twice the available supply.
• Impacts of climate change: Fast-changing climate leading to erratic rainfall pattern. Eg. Chennai that previously suffered from floods recently suffered from drought due to 50% less than normal rainfall.
• Lack of sustainable urban planning: Cities lost green cover to make way for infrastructure projects.
  • This leads to flooding during normal rainfall due to stagnation and drought-like conditions due to prevention of underground water storage.
  • Case study – Mumbai: Felling of trees at Aarey colony, to make space for a shed for Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited.
  • Case study – Chennai: City has been built by encroaching floodplains and paving over lakes and wetlands leading to lack of space for water to percolate underground and recharging aquifers.
• Rural water crisis: Mainly due to cultivation of water-intensive crops such as paddy that aggravated water depletion and even turning water saline.
  • Case study – Punjab: Central Ground Water Board ‘s report concluded that Punjab would be reduced to a desert in 25 years if extraction of its groundwater resources continues unabated.
    • 82% of Punjab’s land area has seen a huge decline in groundwater levels.
    • 109 out of 138 administrative blocks have been placed in ‘over exploited’ category.
    • Continuing negative externalities of Green Revolution: Groundwater extraction which was at 35% in the 1960s and 1970s rose to 70% post the Green Revolution.
• Misplaced policy priorities – Excessive thrust on providing water supply: As Ministry of Jal Shakti, announced an ambitious plan to provide water connections to every household in India by 2024.

Way forward: Seeing India’s water crisis through the locus of ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ divide

• Governance reforms: At sectoral level, Ministries and Departments of water resources must coordinate efforts with their counterparts in agriculture, environment and rural development for greater convergence to achieve water and food security.
  • Enhanced integration and coordination through effective land and water zoning regulations that protects urban water bodies, groundwater sources, wetlands and green cover.
  • Enhance waste water recycling and water recharge activities targeting aquifers and wells through rainwater harvesting.
  • Multi-disciplinary water policy architecture: At disciplinary level, water governance and management should increasingly interact and draw from expertise of fields such as hydrology (watershed sustainability), hydrogeology (aquifer mapping and recharge) and agriculture sciences (water-sensitive crop choices and soil health).
• Immediate measures:
  • To replenish groundwater: Through participatory groundwater management approaches with combination of water budgeting, aquifer recharging and community involvement.
  • Surface water conservation should be given due importance as many rivers and lakes are in a critical and dying state.
• A New National Water Policy, rooted in locus-specific realities and allows greater flexibility for integrating insights and work of multiple departments and disciplines.