Deepening Water Crisis in India

Water is one of the most precious elements for human life on the earth. It is critical for satisfying the basic human needs, health, food production, energy and maintenance of regional and global ecosystems. Over 70 per cent of the human body is made up of water. A human being may survive without food for several days but water deprivation can kill a person within a short time. The 21st century has to deal with water quality and management in solving the issues of food or health or sanitation, environment or cities or energy production.

The Crisis
It is estimated that about 120 crore people spread across 40 nations do not have access to safe water; 240 crore lack adequate sanitation services. Over the next 20 years, the world’s population will increase from the present 6.4 billion to an estimated 7.2 billion whereas the average supply of water per person is expected to fall by one-third. The hardest hit will be the poorest.

The principal causes of the water crisis are population growth, climate change, over­use or misuse and pollution of the available water resources. Irrigation accounts for two-thirds of global use of fresh water. Farmers use water less efficiently and withdraw more water to compensate for water losses. In developing nations 60 per cent water is wasted or used inefficiently. Most of the water reservoirs are suffering reduction in storage capacity as a result of sedimentation caused by deforestation; on an average of one per cent of the water storing capacity of the reservoirs is being lost annually.

Situation in India
As far as India is concerned, the country is divided into 24 river basins. Annual mean flow in the river basin is reckoned as water resources of the basin. Central Water Commission has estimated the total water resource of the country at 1953 km3. The water resource of Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna is estimated at 1200 km3 which is 60 per cent of the total water resource while the basin occupies 33 per cent of the geographical area.

Safer water is essential for the sustenance of life. It is needed in the household for drinking, cooking and cleaning besides bovine and horticultural needs. Almost 100 per cent of coverage in both water supply and sanitation is yet to be achieved. Progress to extent of 90 per cent urban water supply and 50 per cent for urban sanitation is reported to have been achieved. The coverage, however, varies widely both in Class I and II cities. The variation in the per capita water supply ranges from nine to 584 Ipcd in urban areas and five to 70 Ipcd in rural areas. The Ninth Five-Year Plan strategy to have 100 per cent coverage in sustainable water supply ensuring adequacy in terms of minimum per capita norms is yet to be translated in true sense of term.

Widespread dissatisfaction among consumers in States like Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh is the result of improperly managed water supply systems, where people are forced to resort to alternate means or supplementary sources for collec­tion of water through private tube wells or tanker supplies at considerable costs. It is so because 17 to 44 per cent of total flow in distribution system is lost due to leakages in the mains, communication and service pipes and leaking valves. To arrest the fall of ground water table, measures of artificial recharge and rain water harvesting have to be encouraged.

Water requirement for industries in India although insignificant, when compared to the demand for other uses like agriculture creates problems by creation of point loads on available resources. Water use in industries is mostly of non-consumptive in nature and with suitable treatment can be recycled and reused by process industries for their requirements of processing, cooling, boiler feed and other miscellaneous purposes. Cost effective strategies have been demonstrated and should be adopted by industries.

National Water Policy
The Union Government had launched a National Water Policy way back in 1987. This was further revised in 2002. It provides guidelines for the optimum use of water in India, treating river basin as units for planning for development and manage­ment. The policy gives first priority to drinking and domestic needs, followed by irrigation and then industry and so on. As the policy, is only a statement of intentions, the states are not exactly following the guidelines unless there is an Act by the Parliament. Under the norms of the policy, each State is supposed to have a State Water Policy. However, few States have adopted their policies to meet the present water crisis.

Inter-State River Conflict
There are two Acts to resolve the Inter-State conflicts. The first is the Inter-State Water Dispute Act of 1956 and the other is the River Board’s Act that came into force in 1957. As far as the first Act is resorted to in dispute by establishing tribunals among States, the latter has not been used at all so far. Even the awards made by the Tribunals under the first Act are running into rough weather with a few States not honouring the decisions.

River Linking Projects
The Government has conceived a massive river linking scheme connecting all the major rivers in India based upon the studies carried out by various agencies during the last two decades. This is considered to be panacea for all the problems of water crisis faced by people of the country during the drought period. International experience on such massive interlinking is being done at present, has not been very favourable. In this connection, the much delayed and yet to be completed Sardar Sarovar Project is also an eye-opener.