India's water crisis hiting the rock bottom

நீர்இன்று அமையாது உலகெனின் யார்யார்க்கும்

வான்இன்று அமையாது ஒழுக்கு

The above couplets of ancient Tamil text Thirukkural says

When water fails, functions of nature cease, you say;

Thus when rain fails, no men can walk in 'duty's ordered way

Today, from the poorest to the privileged, from the marginalised to the much better off, from the rural to the urban we are witnessing a serious water crisis cutting across the states in India. Globally, the standard for water stress situation is 1700 cubic metres of availability of water per person. India, at present, is just below that.

At present, the 91 reservoirs that Central Water Commission (CWC) monitors are around 19% of their life storage. NITI Aayog said in a report titled ‘Composite Water Management Index’ that

• 600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress in the country.
• About three fourth (75%) of the households in the country do not have drinking water at their premise.
• With nearly 70% of water being contaminated, India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index.
• 84% rural households do not have piped water access.

The rivers currents have ebbed; water in dams and reservoirs has depleted and over exploitation of groundwater has raised concerns over the long-term availability of water. If we look at the timeline forecast

• NITI Aayog in its water management index says 21 cities likely to run out of water by 2020.
• Ground water department noted 2 years back that our bore wells are now hitting Paleo-historic storages of water.
• By 2030, 40% of Indians will have no access to drinking water.
• By 2040, there will be no drinking water in almost all of India.

If these numbers are not enough to shake the system out of its slumber then one can only wonder what else would do.

What we are witnessing in state after state is not just drought but an acute water crisis. 

Drought is a temporary reduction in water or moisture availability significantly below the normal or expected amount for a specific period. Attributing drought only to a prolonged dry spell due to lack of sufficient rainfall is a fundamental mistake we tend to make. Rainfall failure or monsoon failure is just one type of drought which is called as meteorological drought. There are other types of drought like

Hydrological drought which is associated with reduction of water i.e. drying up of surface water resources like river, streams, lakes, ponds, tank, etc… and fall in ground water level because of excessive pumping of water without compensatory replenishment. Hydrological drought is driven by human activity.   

Agriculture drought is associated with extreme moisture stress caused by inadequate soil moisture and rainfall, leading to poor crop growth and desertification.

Ecological drought takes place when the productivity of a natural eco system fails significantly as a consequence of distress induced environment damage.

Socio-Economic drought occurs when the demand for an economic good exceeds supply as a result of a weather-related shortfall in water supply. Meteorological, hydrological and agricultural droughts often lead to what is termed as ‘Socio-economic drought’.

If the present crisis is only because of meteorological reasons then the problem should vanish with good rainfall but it is not, rather problem only continue to persist.

Farmers have dealt with drought since the dawn of agriculture. We had deadly droughts in the past like, Bihar drought in 1965-67, Maharashtra drought in 1972. But what makes people more vulnerable, susceptible to drought today than they were two decades ago is the fact that various droughts (Meteorological, hydrological, etc…) are converging and converging at a speed never before leading to a mega water crisis.

Reasons for the Crisis

• Rainfall deficit
• Policy failures with respect to water resources prioritization
• Water resources mismanagement
• Inadequate and improper water management techniques
• Increase in the per capita water demand
• Apart from the reasons cited above, it is also due to the failure on the part of governance and policymaking for decades and the apathy of the Indian state to the suffering of the poor.

Impact

• The greatest stress is on the weaker section of the society. The opportunity cost of standing in the queue is you loss more money than just the cost of water because you may not be able to go to work thus losing one day or part of one day salary. Children (Particularly girl children) have to opt out of school to collect water.
• Distress sale of livestock’s by farmers especially small and marginal farmers as they are unable to provide water (to both cattle and fields) and fodder. There is a collapse of cattle market, as there is no water no one is ready to purchase cattle’s. In extreme case there was even loss of cattle life which has a serious economic impact on the income of farmer’s family.
• Access to water in India also has cast topography. In some parts of India, the so called untouchables are not allowed to use public tanks and other water sources.
• Despites India’s booming economy, water insecurity and poor quality of water remains a major cause of child mortality and morbidity, especially among the poor due to WASH (water, sanitation & hygiene) related diseases.
• It put great stress on our environment. More than 60% of our irrigation water is from ground water. This unrestricted mining of water without proper recharge is devastating to soil and climate. In 1990’s GoI had a programme called “Million bore well scheme”. That is rich farmer takes loans to get bore well. Today same zones, which were million bore well schemes success zone, are listed by government as grey zones where you cannot put another bore well because the aquifer is over.
• Due to excessive use of fertiliser water contamination has increased which lead to increasing chronic diseases.
• Decline in cultivated area, fall in the agricultural productivity, fall in the income of the farmer, fall in the purchasing power, slowing down of secondary and tertiary sector is a vicious cycle leading to inflation and poverty.
• Water crisis is also linked to national security. Wangari Maathai, the Nobel laureate and the founder of Green belt movement  has said that “In any crisis if we remove the superficial layers of religion and politics, quite often it’s a question of trying to access resources, control resources and trying to decided how resources will be shared. Unfortunately when we leave some people out, when some people feel marginalised, not recognised and their voice not listened to, sooner or later they seek justice and sometimes they seek justice in a way that precipitates a crisis or war”  

The biggest beneficiaries of the economy of thirst as P. Sainath puts it are the Tanker water industry and Bore well industry. They are the fastest growing industry seasonally every year from November to June.

There is a flourishing private tanker business across the country, often owned by politicians (Cutting across political parties) and their local crony’s. In just one town in Maharashtra called Aurangabad, the tanker water sales worth 8 million rupees a day. 

Bore well industry in India is the largest in the world. A single town near Erode called Tiruchengode in TN has its bore well rigs operating in 16 African countries and in every single state and Union Territory in India. In Telangana and Andhra there are up to 40 bore wells in one farm. Bore well bankruptcy is one of the fastest routes to farmer bankruptcy.

P Sainath has outlined 5 factors that aggravate the water crisis:

1. Transfer of water from agriculture to industry

Bhilai Iron and steel plant gets water from Tandula Tank in Chhattisgarh. An Industry called Sterlite copper in Thoothukudi, TN, which was ordered to be shut down by Madras HC in 2010 for violating environmental regulations, was getting 1000 litters of water for 10 rupees. 24 beer and alcohol factories in Marathwada get the water at 4 paisa per litter up to 5 million litters daily. Bombay HC put a stay reducing their quota by half for a year.

2. Transfer of water within agriculture from food crop to cash crop

Cash crops are water intensive than food and fodder crops. 22,500 litters of water are required to produce 1 kg cotton. For BT cotton even higher water is required whereas only 1,654 litters for 1 kg wheat and 2,800 litters for rice is required.

     

2,500 litters of water are required to produce 1 kg sugar. 18 million to 20 million litters of water per acre is required to cultivate sugarcane. In the same amount of water 10 to 12 acres of bajra or jowar could be cultivated. Growing sugarcane on a massive scale in perpetually drought prone area like Maharashtra is as sensible as trying to grow coffee and pepper in the Artic. Sugarcane is to be grown where you have perennial rivers like in Gangatic plains.

Maharashtra CM Devandra Fadnavis is of the view that it is not easy to ask farmers to shift crops. Farmers are inclined to grow sugarcane because it is the most sustainable multiyear crop, seasons and rains has less effect on it and there is an assured market for sugarcane.

Farmers preferring cash crop over food or fodder crop is linked with the procurement and pricing policy of the government. It so happens that owing to the higher production of such crops, the government offers several benefits; this tempts other farmers as well to grow such crops, thus creating a vicious circle.

3. Transfer of water from rural to urban

RTI’s have shown us that for last few years, urban settlements, cities, towns in Maharashtra get 400% more drinking water that rural Maharashtra. Mumbai, Thane, Pune which accounts for 34% of Maharashtra’s population gets 53% of drinking water.

4. Transfer of water from poor to rich

All the dams, tanks, rivers are been in the process of being privatised. Their management is privatised. Chhattisgarh is the 1st in India to do so. Through 80’s and 90’s World Bank and IMF changed their loan agreements to include water privatisation as conditionality. The bottled water industry is one of the biggest sources of water drain. Today poor people pay high than beer factory owner for water.

5. Transfer of water from livelihood to life style

In Mumbai, especially in Borivelli, Pune and some other cities, multi-storey (30 – 40 floors) buildings are coming up with swimming pool on every floor called as balcony swimming pools. Who are the construction workers building those buildings? They are the one who abandon the agriculture as there is no water in the villages.

Golf courses are the highest consumers of water of any sporting event. Golf Courses take 1.8 million litters of water per day in seasons. Water flows upward in India from farmlands to gold courses, from poor to rich.

In 2016, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by NGO Loksatta movement, challenging the use of large quantity of water in stadiums despite the state being hit by drought. Hearing the petition Bombay HC ordered the IPL (Indian Premier League) matches to be shifted out of Maharashtra.

Solution

According to P Sainath, in order to have a solution, first we have to answer a fundamental question. Is water a saleable, marketable, profitable commercial commodity or a fundamental right of human beings and millions of other species with whom we share this earth with? He argues that if minimum water requirement of citizens are ensured the scarcity market can be wiped out. Tankers and bore well industries are driven by scarcity. He further argues that we have made food a basic right through Food Security Act, but we can’t have food security when we have water insecurity. There is no food security without water security.

Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2002: Drinking water is a fundamental right under article 21. Why did the Court have to stress on such a basic aspect which is omnipresent in our daily lives? This points out to the fact that we have shifted our priorities from utilization of water for our basic needs to depletion of the resource for our selfish needs. 

Several countries have done legal entitlement to minimum drinking water. Uruguay is a classic example. In 2014 Uruguay held a referendum in which more than 70% of people voted to say that water in Uruguay cannot be owned privately. 

The Groundwater (Sustainable Management) Bill, 2017 drafted by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation that provides new bases for regulating groundwater as a public resource and measures at aquifer level, has been forgotten.

Nature based solutions

• Switch to less water intensive crops. Both the central government and the state governments need to have considerations on setting the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of water consuming crops. Productions of oilseeds have to be promoted instead of sugarcane in Maharashtra.
• Environmentally-friendly agricultural systems like those which use practices such as conservation tillage, crop diversification, legume intensification and biological pest control work as well as intensive, high-input systems.
• Grow trees which help in ground water retention and recharge.

Governance based solution

• Decentralisation of irrigation commands, offering higher financial flows to well-performing States through a National Irrigation Management Fund could be a way. However, it should be noted here that declaring drought is the responsibility of the state government, whereas release of funds is in the hands of the Central government. Hence it is imperative that there be a harmonious cooperation in action among both the governments. The revised drought manual of 2016, virtually takes away the power of the state government to define and declare drought.
• Strict pollution control enforcement and removing all encroachments on water bodies.
• Better and binding water harvesting regime. Tamil Nadu governments Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) Scheme which was launched in 2001 to rejuvenate water sources and improve ground water levels in the parched southern state is  model worth emulating.
• Mandatory water recycling in apartments, industries and etc…

Interlinking the rivers as proposed by many has its own ecological disadvantages, like in the case of the Ken-Betwa project; half of the Panna Tiger Reserve will get submerged. Also, there will be huge displacement of people. Rajendra Singh, the water man of India has time and again warned about the ill effects of river interlinking. Localised water conservation efforts, instead, is a solution. 20-25% of the water bodies, that can easily supply water to the local population, have damaged in the last 50 years. With the help of local communities, water bodies in a particular region can be easily managed. The government needs to encourage local participation for conserving water in the country. Hiware Bazar is a good example. Hiware Bazar, a village in Maharashtra's drought-prone Ahmednagar district, was sliding into an abyss after its environmental degradation. But in less than a decade it turned itself around into one of the most prosperous villages of the country. It used funds from government schemes; to regenerate its natural resources-forests, watershed and soil led by a strong village body. The village very well manages the 300-400 millimetres (mm) of rainfall that it receives every year.

Switching to drip irrigation as irrigation uses 80% of fresh water. Better and efficient water treatment facilities are some other solutions.

Government Measures

National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) aims to:

• Provide adequate water supply
• Encourage sustainable use of water
• Meet the basic quality standards
• Make water readily available at all times

National Water Policy 2012 aims at:

• Using scientific inputs from research for agricultural strategies for management of soil, land, energy and water management
• Improving the soil and water productivity along with managing droughts

National Water Mission aims at:

• Conservation of water
• Equitable distribution of water

India Water Week

• The 4th India Water Week was organised during the first week of April’16 to elicit ideas and opinions from global-level decision makers, politicians, researchers and entrepreneurs in the field of water resources for mutual benefit and goodwill
• Theme: ‘Water for all: Striving Together’

ShikayatNirvan Kendra It is a good governance initiative in the form of a centralized web enabled redressal system.

Concerned about the water crisis in rural areas, the Prime Minister of India has recently written a personal letter to 'gram pradhans' (village chiefs) requesting them to conserve rainwater during the forthcoming monsoon.

The Union Government on its part has created a Jal Shakti Ministry under a full-fledged cabinet minister to try and address the water emergency. It clubs water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation and has promised that it would ensure potable, piped drinking water to every home by 2024. The role of the Jal Shakti Ministry is quite limited in handling the water crisis situation in the country until the participation of people is there for using the water prudently, for switching from the crops which are water intensive to the crops that are less water intensive.

Since water being a state subject, states are taking the lead. In Rajasthan, there is a scheme called ‘Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan’. One of its objectives is to ensure effective implementation of water conservation and water harvesting related activities in rural areas.

Maharashtra has launched a project called ‘Jalyukt-Shivar’, which aims to make 5000 villages free of water scarcity every year.

The Telangana government has launched a mission called Mission Kakatiya, the objective of which is to enhance the development of agriculture based income for small and marginal farmers, by accelerating the development of minor irrigation infrastructure, strengthening community based irrigation management and adopting a comprehensive programme for restoration of tanks.

A multiple responses are needed to address the water crisis. Government, civil society, expert’s intervention at policy level and greater people’s responsiveness at ground level for effective implementation are very crucial. Reduce, reuse, and recycle must be the watchwords if we have to handover a liveable planet to the future generations.