Watergate: India may run dry by ’20
THE World Bank has warned that India might have to grapple with severe
water scarcity in the next two decades if the country fails to correct the
way it manages its ground water resources. In a draft report entitled India’
s Water Economy: Bracing for a Turbulent Future, released on Monday, the
World Bank says: “Unless water management practices are changed – and
changed soon – India will face a severe water crisis within the next two
decades and will have neither the cash to build new infrastructure nor the
water needed by its growing economy and rising population.”
The report examines the challenges before the country’s water sector and
suggests critical measures to address them. The report, which was discussed
by experts in New Delhi on October 5, is based on 12 papers commissioned by
the Bank from Indian practitioners and policy analysts. “Though the country’
s past investments in large water infrastructure has yielded spectacular
results with enormous gains in food security and in the reduction of
poverty. The same is now crumbling,” the report further notes.
The Bank takes a dig at the country’s “build-neglect-rebuild” philosophy
and states that much of what currently masquerades as ‘investment’ in
irrigation or municipal water supply is in fact a belated attempt to
rehabilitate crumbling infrastructure.
Faced with poor water supply services, farmers and urban dwellers alike
have resorted to helping themselves by pumping out groundwater through
tubewells. “Today, 70% of India’s irrigation needs and 80% of its domestic
water supplies come from groundwater. This has led to rapidly declining
water tables and critically depleted aquifers, and is no longer
sustainable,” the Bank has observed. It outlines a number of areas that are
already in crisis situations and further warns that by ’20, India’s demand
for water will exceed all sources of supply.
“Notwithstanding the catastrophic consequences of indiscriminate pumping
of groundwater, government action – including the provision of free power –
have exacerbated rather than addressed the problem,” the report notes.
Referring to various inter-state wrangling over water, the report highlights
that around 90% of India’s territory is drained by inter-state rivers and
the lack of clear allocation rules and uncertainty about it impose high
economic and environmental costs.
This has affected the country’s important rivers and has made them fetid
sewers. “Sewage and waste water from rapidly growing cities and effluents
from industries directly flows into rivers. Massive investments are needed
in sewers and wastewater treatment plants to protect people’s health and
improve the environment.”
With the climate change projections, India’s water problems are only
likely to worsen, the Bank predicts. “With more rain expected to fall in
fewer days, and the rapid melting of glaciers – especially in the western
Himalayas – India will need to gear up to tackle the increasing incidence of
both droughts and floods,” it warns.
The report candidly notes that India can’t have a secure water future
unless drastic changes are made in the way the state functions.
“The state needs to surrender those tasks which it does not need to
perform, and to develop the capacity to do the many things which only the
state can do,” the study also suggests.
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