India needs to act quickly to fix its water woes

India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources — water. The country’s chronic mismanagement of water is staring at it now. Over 600 million Indians rely on the monsoon to replenish their water sources and the unpredictable nature of rain leaves them vulnerable. The country breaks out in a cold sweat every time the monsoon is delayed. Despite these alarming signals we continue to abuse and use water so profligately.

India’s peculiar demographics make the water equation quite problematic. The country is home to nearly a sixth of the world’s population but has only 2.4 per cent of the world surface and gets only four per cent of the Earth’s fresh water. More than half of the country faces high water scarcity. Out of the 1.2 billion people living in the country, about 742 million live and farm in agricultural heartlands. Rainfall accounts for 68 per cent recharge to ground water, and the share of other resources, such as canal seepage, return flow from irrigation, recharge from tanks, ponds and water conservation structures taken together is 32 per cent.

Water is a multi-dimensional resource requiring an understanding of many other disciplines for its sustainable management. We have to bring in the farmer class and agronomists to the centrestage so that they can synergise a sustainable approach for managing water in an equitable manner. Indian utilities compound the problem by callously losing an estimated 40 to 60 per cent of the water produced. This is in contrast to cities like Tokyo which loses 3.7 per cent, Singapore 4.9 per cent and Phnom Penh 6.5 per cent.

India is not a water scarce country. Along with having major rivers, it receives an average annual rainfall of 1,170 millimetres. It has annual renewable water reserves of 1,608 billion cubic metres a year. With such robust backup and the world’s ninth largest freshwater reserves, India’s water woes are largely a result of inefficient management and not scarcity.

Successive Indian governments have done little to conserve water for off-season use. Despite constructing 4,525 large and small dams, the country has managed to create per capita storage of only 213 cubic metres, a relatively small achievement when compared to Russia’s 6,103 cubic metres, Australia’s 4,733, and China’s 1,111.

While climate change has caused rains to become more erratic, most parts of the country receive a more than adequate amount of rainfall. Water harvesting and management, though required, remains little more than a fad. Many of the areas that are prone to flooding are the same ones that face drought months later. The proliferation of power plants is another area that requires serious re-examination. Government policies that make water and land cheap in the area seem to be the reason for the location of thermal plants.

Israel has been a role model for the world in matters of water management and India is now actively seeking the country’s help. Israel’s successes were in large part due to the major innovation of drip irrigation. The country has also set the template for reusing wastewater in irrigation. It treats 80 per cent of its domestic wastewater, which is recycled and constitutes nearly 50 per cent of the total water used for agriculture.

The Asian Development Bank has forecasted that by 2030, India will have a water deficit of 50 per cent. The Union ministry of water resources has estimated the country’s current water requirements to be around 1,100 billion cubic metres per year. This is estimated to be around 1,200 billion cubic metres for the year 2025 and 1,447 billion cubic metres for the year 2050.

The average Indian had access to 5,200 cubic metres a year of water in 1951, shortly after Independence when the population was 350 million. By 2010, that had fallen to 1,600 cubic metres, a level regarded as “water-stressed” by international organisations. Today, it is at about 1,400 cubic metres, and analysts say it is likely to fall below the 1,000 cubic metre “water scarcity” limit in the next two to three decades.

India’s rivers are drying and are symptomatic of the dire state of the water crisis. The per capita water availability in 1951 was 5,177 cubic metres. By 2011, this had fallen to 1,545 cubic metres. Further, according to the National Institute of Hydrology most of this water is not suitable for human use. It estimates that the per capita availability of usable water was a mere 938 cubic metres. This is expected to decline further, reaching 814 cubic metres by 2025.

This groundwater is thousands of years old, and it is not replenishing itself. Those who hope to win the race for the last water reserves are forced to drill deeper and deeper into the ground. The Earth appears a blue planet from distant space, but only 2.5 per cent of its water is fresh. “Water is the primary principle of all things,” philosopher Thales of Miletus wrote in the 6th century BC. More than two-and-a-half thousand years later, on July 28, 2010, the United Nations felt it was necessary to define access to water as a human right. The response demonstrated the world body’s desperation with the crisis.

Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citibank, summed up his industry’s assessment in a strategy document four years ago, writing: “Water as an asset class, in my view, will eventually become the single most important physical commodity — dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities, and precious metals.”

India ranks in the top 38 per cent of countries most vulnerable to climate change in the world and the least ready to adapt, according to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index. Rural communities dependent on farming to make a living will struggle to grow food and feed livestock amid soaring temperatures, and women — typically responsible for collecting water — may have to walk even greater distances during prolonged dry seasons.

Ancient Indians understood the art of water governance. Kautilya’s Arthashastra, written around 300 BC, has details of how tanks and canals must be built and managed. The key was to clarify the enabling role of the state, the king, and the management role of local communities. The kings did not have armies of engineers; they provided fiscal incentives to communities and individuals who built water systems. The British upset this traditional norm by vesting the resource with the state and creating large bureaucracies for management.

People conserved water by harvesting, storing and managing rainfall, runoff and stream flows. Most of India’s water management has been at the community level, relying upon diverse, imaginative and effective methods for harvesting rainwater in tanks and small underground storage systems. These were abandoned when modern reforms which were attributed to so-called superior knowledge in comparison to age-old wisdom were embraced. They now remain little more than a fad.

These systems continue to remain viable and cost-effective alternatives for replenishing depleted groundwater aquifers. With the government support, these systems could be revived, upgraded and productively combined with modern techniques. India is currently using only 35 per cent of the rainwater it receives. If rainwater harvesting projects are effectively implemented, 65 per cent of the rainwater which is wasted can be used.

The climatic stresses are mounting fast and India needs to start talking about the elephant in the room. For any planned interventions to be successful, hardcoded timelines are needed. India must find better ways to parlay its impressive economic growth into faster progress in this critical area. It will have to change course and shift away fast from business as usual approach before water runs out.

The writer is a well-known banker, author and Islamic researcher. He can be reached at moinqazi123@gmail.com