Running Out of Water ; for Millions of Poor in India's Cities and Villages, It Is Already a Daily Reality. But with Consumption Soaring and Little Being Done to Boost Supply, Water Threatens to Become a Nation-Wide Crisis, Affecting Agricultural Production and Industrial Growth.

Business Today › July 17, 2006

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Summary

It's an irony that is driven home with unfailing regularity every year. Like at present. Even as large parts of the country-including coastal Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal and, of late, Mumbai-reel under excessive rains, there are other places (think interior parts of Rajasthan, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Punjab) that remain bone dry. Here, growing a crop, feeding your livestock or even quenching your thirst is an everyday challenge.

The stark scenario is, of course, a pointer to everything that's wrong with the country's water management. Despite having more than 128 big and small rivers and four months of monsoon, India is a water-scarce nation. In most cities, municipal water supply to approved neighbourhoods is limited to a few hours every day, while those who live in slums or poorer boroughs must depend on private water tankers or tube wells. For farmers, water is an even bigger issue, since their livelihoods depend on it. The spate of farmer suicides in the drylands of Vidarbha, for instance, is largely due to failed rains and a lack of alternative water supply for irrigation.

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Running Out of Water ; for Millions of Poor in India's Cities and Villages, It Is Already a Daily Reality. But with Consumption Soaring and Little Being Done to Boost Supply, Water Threatens to Become a Nation-Wide Crisis, Affecting Agricultural Production and Industrial Growth.

Expect the situation to get worse. According to a Green India study done by TERI (The Energy & Resources Institute), the per capita availability of water in India has declined from 6,000 cubic metres in 1947 to 2,300 cubic metres in 1997 (the latest available figures). But TERI's Distinguished Fellow, Ashok Jaitly, says that it's almost certain the figure has come down further over the last nine years to around 1,800 cubic metres, simply because of population growth. Meanwhile, in contrast, the demand for water is soaring. Merely looking at ...

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