Growing Water Crisis
| Date :23-Jun-2019 |
“Monsoon is erratic and dwindling. Damming rivers without due consideration of the pros and cons and exploitation of rivers by sand mining, fishing, etc. have left them damaged.”
“Drinking water scarcity is leading to violent fisticuffs in people and these are going to turn into bloody wars of dangerous proportions.”
MORE than 44 per cent of India’s areas were under various degrees of drought conditions (abnormally dry to exceptionally dry) as of June 10, 2019 — that is nearly 11 percentage point over a year ago, according to the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS). Within this, “severe to exceptionally dry conditions” prevailed in 17.33 per cent area, according to the real-time drought monitoring platform. While just 0.65 per cent of the area had “exceptionally dry” conditions in June 2018, it has now jumped to 5.87 per cent, stated the latest data. Further, the delay in south west monsoons has worsened the drought index, the DEWS reported. In the June 6 update, the real-time platform recorded 43.02 per cent area under “abnormally to exceptionally dry” conditions.
However, the latest data showed an increase (44.17 per cent). Similarly, the percentage of area under ‘extremely dry to exceptional dry’ increased from 10.83 to 11.22 per cent during the same period, a news report says. The latest bulletin of the Central Water Commission on June 13 said that the total water available in live storage of 91 reservoirs in the country being monitored by CWC was 29.189 BCM. This is 18 per cent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs and 103% of storage of average of last ten years of their capacity. All eyes are now on the monsoon. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has claimed that it will be a normal monsoon but northwest India and northeast India are expected to have less than normal rains.
The delay in the onset of monsoons has further extended the dry spell. The water crisis is going to be the biggest challenge for any Government in the next decade and the most catastrophic development to destabilise Indian society. Despite repeated warnings by scientists and limnologists for decades, no major initiative was launched to conserve or recycle water. Today, we are on the verge of a severe long-term drought that could ravage millions of lives and livelihoods. Hundreds of our lakes and rivers, the major ecosystems to sustain life, have simply vanished from the landscape – industries, roads, and buildings have replaced them. Water bodies that were left have become so polluted and deadly that even aquatic life cannot survive there.
They are as good as dead for any human purpose. The forest ecosystems that were once the most important natural aquifers that retained and recharged water too have been systematically plundered to give way to so-called development projects, with little effort directed towards compensating those colossal losses. Losses to natural resources are being wrought continually, even today, despite our being on the brink of a disaster. There is still very feeble and scattered effort at conserving water. Even in the Government setups, there is no stringent mandate on saving and recycling water, let alone private establishments. India is a rain-fed economy with agriculture as its backbone. Without a proper storage and distribution facility of water in place, the whole farming profession will perish and we will be in the midst of a serious food crisis.
Agriculture land is already shrinking and the adversities before the farmer are many. Among all of them, water is the most serious concern before them. Innovative agricultural practices that need less water are still not widely prevalent because most farmers have not yet been made aware of the scientific techniques. New breed crops needing less water to grow are still not available to most farmers. There is poor canal network to ensure perennial water supply to them. Apart from farming, the crisis is equally ominous in cities and villages where there is water scarcity even for consumption and use by humans and cattle. River water is tried to be ferried to cities by pipelines but where would rivers get water from? Most rivers run dry for over half of the year. Monsoon is erratic and dwindling. Damming rivers without due consideration of the pros and cons and exploitation of rivers by sand mining, fishing, etc. have left them damaged. Drinking water scarcity is leading to violent fisticuffs in people and these are going to turn into bloody wars of dangerous proportions. Yet, there is also another picture of a society where the rich and influential have no accountability to the nation when it comes to cornering the best of facilities for themselves.
They simply waste gallons of water in washing their SUVs, bathing their dogs and watering their manicured gardens. There is no rationing, no action against such brazen disregard for the precious resource. There is no taxation on water, no mandate for water harvesting, no checks, and balances in place for equitable distribution. Ultimately, it amounts to economic and political imprudence, because it is digging our own graves to fulfill our short-term luxuries. Scores of cities across the world have gone dry and people are dying for two bottles of water. India is not far from that scary scenario. There is little we can do now, for we have already lost invaluable time when mending our ways could have reversed things. Today we have let it slip between our fingers. Most Indians are still woefully unaware of the larger picture and how close we are to the debacle, more so because there has been no national campaign or scheme to communicate to the people the real danger we have at hand. Water scarcity is a vague premise in our psyche which is being repeated like a formula weather forecast for decades. The intensity has not been upped and people have not been involved through micromanagement initiatives in stemming the crisis.
There have been sporadic efforts by individual officers or NGOs in different pockets of the country but no integrated management model has been put in place to serve as a pan-India template for water management. Crores of rupees have been spent for last four decades on the cleaning of the Ganges, yet, it is as filthy as ever— the major reason being the lack of a proper system in place, a clear roadmap, accountability, and target-oriented approach.
Many of our grand schemes fail due to the lack of efficiency and know-how in their adept implementation and accountability. But we cannot take chances with this because water is directly and immediately related to our life and sustenance. Civilizations have perished and the grandest cities and largest kingdoms of yore have vanished from the face of the earth simply because of the lack of water or, rather, the end of it due to misuse and mismanagement. By the way, conversely, all the history, growth and prosperity of civilizations have been defined by their proximity to and dependency on water, including their conservation and recycling, which our ancestors knew and practiced. No matter how ‘developed’ and smart we think ourselves, without the simple knowledge of saving water and using it judiciously, we all are partakers of a grand show of stupidity and contributors to the degeneration of our civilization.