Water Crisis in India – A Man made Disaster

We can all agree that despite multiple lessons from stories, instructions not to waste water and warnings of consequences from our ancestors who had preached us that Jal Hai to kal hai , Jal hi Jeevan hai - we have reached to a situation in which the world including India is facing severe water crisis, most of our cities are going out of water and this situation is going from bad to worse. Globally 785 million people lack even basic drinking-water service, including 144 million people who are dependent on surface water. By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas and on an average contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 485000 diarrheal deaths each year.

The situation is so alarming that at present we have reached a point of no return. Are you aware of the alarming situation of Water Crisis in India, if you are not – then just go through the below facts:

• → 70% of India’s Water is contaminated and 84% of households do not have access to piped water
• → Nearly 90% of available ground water is used for Irrigation in India. States like UP, Punjab, MP and Maharashtra use much of the ground water available for agricultural irrigation purpose only.

• → Water demand-supply gap in agriculture could be as high as 570 BCM by 2030
• → Due to seasonal, geographical and annual variation in availability of water as well as lack of adequate storage, substantial quantities of water, especially during monsoon season, remains unused and flows into the sea. India’s per capita water storage capacity is one of the lowest in the world.

• → According to WHO Number of Diarrhea deaths in India from inadequate water in 2016 were 140045 and it is increasing every year, the death rate per lakh is highest among any developed or developing nation
• → In India every year at least 200000 people die due to lack of access to safe water. The World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are linked to unsafe water and lack of hygiene practices. Further more than 500 children’s under the age of 5 die each day from diarrhea in India

• → India’s urban population is expected to reach 600 million by 2030 and fulfilling its water demand will be a great challenge and next to impossible task

• → Composite Water Management Index Report of Niti Aayog draws on data from 24 of India's 29 states, says the crisis is "only going to get worse" in the years ahead. It also warns that more than 20 cities are likely to run out of groundwater by 2020 due to increasing demand

Do you really believe that India is a water scarce country?

Probably my answer to it would be - a big NO.

• → India is not a water – scare country, along with having major rivers, we receive average rain fall of 1,170mm which is 70mm more than that of World’s average
• → India is using the largest amount of ground water amounting to 24% of global total, which is more than that of China and US put together

• → According to a report of Water Aid, India is the third – largest exporter of ground water in the world
• → India exported more than 10 Trillion liters of virtual water through the export of 37 lakhs tons of Basmati Rice in 2014-15 alone, which could have been used to grow much larger quantities of other crops

• → We have to educate farmers regarding Sahi Fasal according to climatic zone and water availability in the zone so that they can shift from Water guzzling crops to climate smart crop and earn much more and save much more
• → India needs to quickly adapt to water-smart agriculture not only to ensure food security to the nation but water security to its 1.3 billion citizens
• → We have to do things on priority as India is currently ranked 120 out of 122 countries in water quality index

Life depends on Water, the Reservoir depends on us…………. Act now….!!