While water crisis is not isolated only to India, the extent of the problem we face makes it pivotal for us to act quickly and efficiently. From easing our dependency on erratic monsoons for agriculture to making judicious use of already depleting groundwater sources, a spate of major steps are the need of the hour New Delhi: According to projections by the World Resources Institute (WRI), water stress by 2050 is expected to become a huge problem in many parts of the world. According to the WRI study, 51 of the 164 countries and territories analysed in their data are expected to suffer from high to extremely high water stress by 2050. This corresponds to 31 per cent of the population. While water scarcity is expected to hit emerging countries more, many in Southern Europe like Portugal,
Spain and
Italy. For
France and Poland, the WRI experts assume medium to high water stress, which corresponds to a consumption rate of 20 to 40 percent of available resources. The Arabian Peninsula,
Iran, India, Algeria,
Egypt and Libya are countries expected to consume at least 80 percent of the available water by 2050. A major global worry The projections by the World Resources Institute are worrisome and importantly are not isolated. Many studies in recent years have gone on to point out how the water crisis is slowly becoming one of the biggest problems we face globally. For
India as well, the trends are not very positive. According to the Central Water Commision the water level in more than half of the country’s major reservoirs is lower than 40 per cent of their capacity. The storage capacity in two-thirds of these reservoirs currently stands at less than 50 per cent and the problem with time is only expected to become worse. While India houses 16 per cent of the global population, it only possesses 4 per cent of the world’s fresh water. The recent water shortage in Bangalore too was seen by many to be a sign of things to come, highlighting how the problem is now being manifested in real time. Some statistics from the World Bank go on to show how big of a problem water scarcity has become for India. For example, 163 million Indians lack access to safe drinking water 210 Million Indians lack access to improved sanitation and reportedly 21 per cent of communicable diseases are linked to unsafe water in India. Added to this, general infrastructure woes and pollution in rivers, India is behind in many sectors when it comes to how we deal with water crisis. Water is important not just for drinking and agriculture but for a whole host of other activities, many of which are pivotal to the country’s growing economy. Water shortage thus can cause many problems in the near future. India, depending majorly on agriculture for
economy, needs to be extremely precautious with how it deals with its problem of water scarcity. It has to ease its overdependence on the country’s erratic monsoon patterns to meet its water requirements for agriculture. Worsening climate change already is making this problem worse. Added to this, groundwater, one of the most important sources for irrigation as well as for rural and urban domestic water supply in India has been depleted for way too long now. Judicious use of India’s groundwater sources has to be done as it is quickly deteriorating, both in its quantity and quality. The problem as we see is spread across the country, from its mountains to its plains. It thus needs major, collaborative efforts from all sections of the society in combating this issue. While not isolated to India, the extent of the problem we face makes it pivotal for us to act quickly and efficiently. Not just massive government schemes employed at the top level but also knowledge about judicious water use and management should be spread across the country. Promoting water-friendly agriculture practices and reducing already done damage to groundwater sources would also go a big way in easing the problem with time. (Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone. The opinions and facts in this article do not represent the stand of News9.)