The NITI Aayog report on Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) said that India is facing its ‘worst’ water crisis in history. Taps in Shimla went dry in summer of 2018, posing an unprecedented water crisis in the hill town. Maharashtra and nearly half the country is facing drought and crippling water scarcity. Rains in 2018 in many parts were below normal with long gaps between rainy days. Our water crisis is turning more structural and stems from mostly man-made factors.

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Current water crisis in India:

• The annual per capita availability of water continues to decline sharply from about 5,177 cubic metres in 1951 to about 1,720 cubic metres in 2019.
• The NITI Aayog in its report on Composite Water Management Index (2018) has underlined that currently 600 million people face high to extreme water stress.
• Twenty-one cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people.
• The rate of groundwater extraction is so severe that NASA’s findings suggest that India’s water table is declining alarmingly at a rate of about 0.3 metres per year.
• At this rate of depletion, India will have only 22 per cent of the present daily per capita water available in 2050, possibly forcing the country to import water.
• Dug-wells and borewells are constructed with alarming impunity to slide deeper and deeper to suck water from greater depths.
• Water is being diverted from food-crops to cash-crops; livelihoods to lifestyles; rural to urban—mismanagement is a bigger reason for the drought.
• Water shortages are hurting India’s ability to produce power and 40% thermal power plants are in areas facing high water stress, a recent World Resources Institute report says.
• Not only farmers, urban dwellers in cities and towns across India are also staring at a never seen before drinking water scarcity
• Residents in the arid Thar Desert of Rajasthan are spending Rs 2,500 to buy 2,500 litres of water which they share with their cattle.

Causative factors for water crisis:

• A combination of population explosion, unplanned growth of the city and its expansion to some traditional catchment areas (a region from which rainfall flows into a river, lake, or reservoir) have led to a reduction in the natural flow of water, and large-scale deforestation.
• Climate change, leading to much lower precipitation during the winter months. As a result, the natural flow and recharge of water in the region has fallen sharply
• Failure of State governments to check unplanned development and exploitation of water resources. There is no attempt at the central or state levels to manage water quantity and quality
• The vegetation pattern has changed, tree cover is shrinking and unscientific dumping of debris in water streams is rampant.
• The debris blocks the natural course of water bodies.
• Increasing number of tube wells resulting in depletion of groundwater.
• Changes in farming patterns lead to consumption of more water for irrigation and also change the soil profile because of the use of fertilizers
• The states ranked lowest like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Jharkhand – are home to almost half of India’s population along with the majority of its agricultural produce.
• There is also a lack of interest in maintaining India’s traditional water harvesting structures.

Measures needed to strengthen water Governance:

• India’s priority must be:
  • To make our irrigation and water systems amenable to modern concepts.
  • To complete irrigation and water sector reforms.
  • To implement improved water management, governance and regulation practices.
  • Pricing system for water: For making people use water efficiently
• Deepen our understanding of our water resources and usage and put in place interventions that make our water use efficient and sustainable.
• Augmentation of watersheds that can store more good water, for use in agriculture and to serve habitations.
• Strict pollution control enforcement.
• Decentralisation of irrigation commands, offering higher financial flows to well-performing States through a National Irrigation Management Fund.
• Groundwater extraction patterns need to be better understood through robust data collection.
• Pollution can be curbed by levying suitable costs.
• Poor maintenance of pipelines, consistent leakage and illegal tapping of water are some of the issues that need to be addressed on a war-footing.
• Adopting rainwater harvesting techniques is the need of the hour.
• A legal mandate will work better than just competition and cooperation; it would make governments accountable.
• These forward-looking changes would need revamped national and State institutions, and updated laws.
• Urban India needs to focus on recycling and harvesting water, having better testing and purification facilities and increase public awareness on the need to conserve water.
• Large catchment areas need to be developed around water bodies so that natural recharge of groundwater takes place. A good example is the Seog catchment area which has been denoted as a wildlife sanctuary and where no construction is allowed.
• Greywater recycling, a method of recycling wastewater from kitchen sinks, showers and laundry fixtures.
• Greywater recycling helps reduce household water usage by about 50% .
• Comprehensive restructuring of India’s Central Ground Water Board and the Central Water Commission in order to create a new 21st Century management authority.
• Right to water should mean a high priority to drinking water.
• This year’s World Water Development Report makes it clear that nature-based solutions which are also aligned with the principles and aims of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can offer answers to our most pressing water-related challenges.

Conclusion:

There is a need for credible environmental and cumulative impact assessments, genuine public consultation process at multiple stages of planning and project implementation, confidence-inspiring appraisal, which includes the appointment of independent experts, and most crucially, achieving some real monitoring and compliance. The water governance ought to be made transparent, accountable and participatory in every sub-sector, including management of rivers, groundwater, floods, and biodiversity, among others.