What is the issue?
- India is witnessing depletion of water resources due to several reasons and instances of water shortages across the country.
- In this context, here is a look at India’s water conditions and the possible measures at addressing the water crisis.
What is India’s water resource scenario?
- Today, India conserves only 8% of the rainfall it receives, which is among the lowest in the world.
- Further, only 4% of world’s water resources are available to India.
- In contrast, India has to provide for 16% of world’s population.
- Moreover, agriculture consumes nearly 80% (65% in China) of fresh water in India.
- The rest 20% is used for drinking and other household activities.
- The latest available World Bank statistics show that India produced $0.5 of agricultural GDP (in 2010) for a litre of fresh water.
- This figure is $1.6 for China (in 2012) and $3.9 for Israel (in 2004), which all stand as success stories of efficient water use for agriculture.
- In contrast, there has been no increase in agricultural output per unit of water usage in India during the last 3 decades.
What is the emerging threat?
- Water crisis is now a worldwide phenomenon.
- Nearly, two-thirds of the global population is living under water-stressed conditions.
- By 2025, about 1.8 billion people are expected to face absolute water scarcity.
- However, it is much worse in India due to mismanagement of water usage in agricultural operations.
- The country is already witnessing water shortage, particularly in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Haryana.
- The huge water shortage is likely to land the country in a critical situation, if urgent steps are not taken.
- NITI Aayog’s report of 2018 asserts that groundwater in 21 cities of India is set to plunge to bare minimum levels by 2020.
What are the possible measures?
- Recycling sewage and other household waste water by setting up water-treatment plants with innovative technologies, and reusing the extracted water for irrigation
- Singapore, Windhoek (Namibia capital) and Israel are great examples of treating such water for reuse and even for drinking.
- Increasing awareness among the masses about scarcity of water and the dire need of conserving it
- Imposing penalties suitably for wasting and polluting water
- Limiting per capita use of water and imposing fines for exceeding the limit
- Traditional water conservation/harvesting methods must be revived. E.g., -
- constructing farm ponds, check dams, gully plugging, dug wells, borewells and artificial glaciers in Ladakh
- Tamaswada Pattern nallahs treatment in Maharashtra
- soak pits in Punjab
- watershed development and management in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh
- Agricultural universities should take a lead in advising farmers on suitable cropping patterns to save water.
- This should take into account soil and other climatic conditions of a region.
- Drip irrigation and sprinklers should be promoted.
- In urban areas, there is water theft and also loss of clean water due to slackness on the part of water management bodies.
- This is due to the inferior water service infrastructure and its poor maintenance.
- This needs to be corrected by adopting strict procedures for compliance and monitoring.
- Stopping providing subsidised power or free power to farmers
- However, small and marginal farmers may need to be compensated for this loss by increasing the MSP for their produce.
- Free power to farmers leads to excessive withdrawal of groundwater, as well as increases soil salinity, jeopardizing farm sustainability.
What lies ahead?
- Water crisis in urban areas normally attracts governments’ attention.
- However, it is the inefficient water use in agricultural sector in rural areas that is largely contributing to this situation in India.
- Keeping in mind the India’s water scenario, the government rightly launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) recently.
- The objective is to take measures for rainwater harvesting, water conservation and replenishing water bodies for meeting acute water shortage.
- While launching JSA, the government announced reorientation of MGNREGA towards water conservation and harvesting.
- Accordingly, it reserved 75% (instead of 67% in 2018-19) of 2.58 billion person-days expected to be generated during 2019-20.
- Going further, it would be necessary to provide adequate funds to complete all pending water storage projects in states.
- The Centre and states will have to reflect on the much-needed water conservation measures, for JSA to achieve its objectives.
Source: Financial Express
