India’s Quest for combating water crisis: Problems and Prospects
Dr VK Bahuguna
March 22, 2024, 07:07:10
International water day's theme " leveraging water for peace" this year is very relevant in the midst of wars between Russia and Ukraine and between Hamas and Israel. Very Apt theme from the point of view of the water stressed world.
Water is fundamental for sustaining life on planet Earth both for the plant as well as animal kingdoms. The animal bodies constitute about 70% water and liquid and in case of plant the water constitute up to about 90% depending upon the type of plant species. Without water there is no life but in today’s world of increasing population, climatic vagaries humanity is facing severe water shortage all over the world. Due to mismanagement of water resources we are reminded about a poem by Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge “water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”. The earth is 70% covered with water but fresh water is only 3 percent and that too drinking water is only 1 % and rest is trapped in ice and glaciers. Of the world’s total water supply of 332.5 million cubic miles, 97% is saline and unfit for human consumption. India is having 18 % of the world population but only 4 % of the water resources. Brazil has the highest freshwater resources in the world and accounts for 12% of the world’s fresh water resources thanks to Amazon region. On paper India is a water rich country though, as according to Central Water Commission (CWC) it receives 4000 billion cubic meters (bcm) of precipitation (of which 3000 bcm is received in June to September monsoon months) but our water needs are limited to 3000 billion cubic meters. However, we could hold only 8 % of this water due to lack of storage capabilities. India’s total utilizable water resources are only around 1120 bcm. The CWC had assessed that the average annual per capita availability of water in 2021 was only 1486 cubic meter which will decline to 1367 cubic meter in the year 2031 which will further decline by another 32 % in 2050. On account of population growth, life style changes and indiscriminate exploitation of ground water for agriculture, urbanization and industrial use, India is becoming severe water stressed nation.
Thus, managing water efficiently for the rising population of India is really going to be a big challenge in an era of biodiversity loss and climate change. Apart from over exploitation of ground water for irrigation the extremely poor lopsided land use policy and encroachments the country had lost a large portion of its small wet lands. Similarly the village ponds, wells and lakes as also the sub-surface water channels are also vanishing slowly. In Punjab and Haryana the ground water exploitation for agriculture has reached a situation that if crop diversification is not ensured the food production will be net zero after a decade or so. The degradation of forest cover is also disturbing the aquifer recharge and waters of rain fed rivers like Narmada, Godavari and Cauvery. The flow of water in 12 major rivers is either getting reduced or creating flash floods due to climatic changes, erratic rainfall and anthropogenic reasons.
In order to tide over the water crisis Prime Minister Modi in his second tenure in 2019 created the Jal Shakti Ministry by merging three departments viz Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and Drinking Water and Sanitation so that focused attempts are undertaken to manage water resources efficiently. For the past 6 years spectacular success was achieved in many fronts in setting the distorted management of water to right trajectory by implementing several flagship schemes.
Large tracks of Centre and North–West Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh are severely water stressed due to depleting ground water resources and erratic rainfall and its management. The Ministry of Jal Shakti had identified 8220 water stressed panchayats in 80 districts in these States with an outlay of Rs 6000 crore to implement the Atal Bhoo Jal Yojna in order to restore the ground water. Now four more States Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are also being included in this project. Ever since the Jal Shakti Ministry has been created the focus of water management scheme of the government has been to involve the communities in the demand driven manner in managing the water resources and this is the high point of its success. The ground water recharge however depends upon treating the forestlands specially the degraded forests not merely by plantation activities but creating water bodies and contour and staggered trenches over the 30 million ha of degraded forests as well as adjacent private lands and the lands vested under the Forest Rights Act 2006 based on landscape approach and planting of grasses, herbs and shrubs and few indigenous trees on the bunds along the trenches. This is imperative because the 450 rivers and rivulets are the source of sustaining our food and water security and forest and landscape based hydrology need to be treated for climatic adaptation. The Ministry of Jal Shakti therefore, should sanction at least Rs 2000 crore in the next five years for special treatment of degraded forests if the project has to make a dent.
The Jal Jeevan Mission launched in 2019 is one of the best administrative actions taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the last ten years as on 2019 out of 19.26 crore households 80 % were not having access to tap water but after the effective implementation of community based demand driven with superior management technology now as on January 2024, 14.11 crore household were having tap water thus covering more than 70 % of the households in the last about five years. The hall mark of a civilized society and good governance is measured if the citizens have access to clean drinking water. India lost around 2 lakh infants and other citizens annually due to lack of access to safe drinking water.
Recently now from 2024 the Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched a scheme called ‘Catch the Rain 2024’ to promote rain water harvesting and by assigning key roles to women in its management. So in nut shell, schemes of Jal Shakti Abhiyan by the government are yielding results mainly due to community involvement. However, in view of a close relation between the water availability and climate change there should be now focus at the district level to evolve a climate resilient development administration which will bring all the departments at one platform and plan the developmental activities in such a manner that development and climatic adaptations are ensured in full for the society and water shortage is mitigated. (The author is former Director-general of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education)
(Tripurainfo)