Conserving the last drop:-
This editorials is part of 6 series essay that explores the issues of water scarcity and provide few good case studies.
Here are the 6 parts :-
- Drilling for their Lives
- Telengana’s Tanker economy
- Drinking water, sipping Poison
- Interlinking, an idea with flaws
- Scarcity in Mettur’s vicinity
- Conservation – lessons form ancient India
Part -2 – Telengana’s Tanker economy
Across many villages in Narayankhed and Zaheerabad in Medak district, Telangana, there is one striking and common feature nowadays – large plastic drums placed in front of the households to store water supplied not by the Rain Gods but by water tankers that come lumbering through sporadically.
With a 14 per cent rainfall deficit in last year’s monsoon and precious little water harvesting in the state, drought-like conditions have started to grip parts of the countryside here. Yet faced with the insufficient arrangements made by the government people in this area have mostly been left to fend for themselves in the private sector.
Costly water
This emerging “tanker economy” is not an easy solution for over 5,000 villages facing water scarcity in this region and people are queuing up overnight to get a few pitchers filled in villages such as Anthakkapeta in Husnabad.
Whether they are supplied by the Rural Water Supply Department or private sources, tanker water comes at a steep price.
For lakhs of households across Telangana the ongoing summer has been brutally harsh not just owing to the mercury touching 46 degree Celsius in some places but also because the inevitable need for people to spend money on water has cut sharply into their household income. Failure of three out of the last four successive monsoons not only affected most parts of the newly-formed State but also in the catchment areas of the Godavari and Krishna rivers originating in the Western Ghats and some of their tributaries taking off in Maharashtra and Karnataka. In turn, this has impacted water storage in major reservoirs.
Poor storage
Despite the State Government’s plans to restore irrigation tanks under its flagship scheme of Mission Kakatiya from last year, the continuing over-siltation of minor water bodies such as tanks, lakes and ponds along with the poor condition of feeder channels implies that even the minimal rainfall that occurred are not stored efficiently.
The impact has been cumulative this year as the resultant depletion of groundwater table has dried up nearly 5,000 sources of protected water supply schemes meant for supplying water to one village each.
Besides, over ten per cent of the 1.57 lakh hand pumps have also gone bone dry and a majority of the remaining ones are able to give only meagre quantity of water. The average depletion of groundwater table in Telangana in March this year compared to last March was 8.7 feet in with the highest being 31.9 feet in Dharur area of Mahabubnagar. The average depth of groundwater availability has slipped to 50 feet in March this year compared to 41 feet last year.
Telangana’s monsoon rainfall deficit was 30 per cent in 2014-15. The nationwide deficit figure of 14 per cent in 2015-16 belies the impact in this State, because the uneven spread of this shortfall meant that there were excess deficits of 46 and 45 per cent in Nizamabad and 40 and 35 per cent in Medak, respectively, during the two years.
Residents such as Gurappa and Venkanna can only pray that this year the Indian Meteorological Department’s forecast of a normal monsoon will come true. If it does not, then they will have to dig ever deeper into their pockets to pay for tanker water with money that they do not have.
Part 3 will be published tomorrow.
Recent Posts
Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.