As we are celebrating World Water Day, a global event with a theme ‘waste water’, it is imperative for us to know the enormity of water scarcity in India
This World Water Day focuses on ‘waste water’. As India is experiencing acute water scarcity, it is important for us to know the current scenario of water scarcity in India.
Too much water too little to drink
There is life on earth because of water but this water is not enough to quench the thirst of people, as, according to the UNESCO estimates, the total volume of water on earth is about 1.4 billion cubic km, enough to cover the earth with a 3 km deep layer. The world’s oceans cover about three-fourths of earth’s surfaces, out of which fresh water constitutes 35 million cubic km or 2.5 per cent of the total volume. And about 24 million cubic km or 68.9 per cent is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in mountainous regions, the Antarctic and Arctic regions and another 29.9 per cent is present as ground water (shallow and deep groundwater basins up to 2,000 meters). The rest 0.3 per cent is available in form of lakes, rivers and 0.9 per cent as soil moisture, swamp water and permafrost atmosphere.
Widening gap between demand and availability of water
According to the Report by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change on ‘National Water Framework Law’,water availability per capita has been plunging in India due to expanding population. The average annual per capita water availability in 2001 and 2011 was assessed at 1,820 cubic m and 1,545 cubic m, respectively. Over this period, India’s population rose 17.6 per cent from 1.02 billion to 1.21 billion.In addition the report also found that the availability of water may decline to 1,341 cubic m and 1,140 cubic m by 2025 and 2050, respectively. This account testifies the enormity of water scarcity in India.
When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water
India has seen an alarming fall in groundwater levels as it is the largest consumer of groundwater. While 80 per cent of India’s drinking water is provided by groundwater, there is sharp 65 per cent dip in water levels in India’s wells in the last decade.
The states which witnessed this sharp plunge in ground water level includes; Uttar Pradesh, Telengana, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra. While industries are overusing groundwater for commercial purpose, there is no safe potable water for the people to drink. Groundwater recharge and depleting reserves of groundwater is a serious concern that remains to be tackled.
Glaciers- Source of rivers are retreating
India’s perennial river like Ganges, Yamuna gets water from glaciers of Gangotri and Yamunotri respectively. Because of these glaciers these rivers flow throughout the length and breadth of country and fulfill the basic needs of people living along its banks.Hence these are also called lifelines of country. But with ever increasing global warming and climate change, its repercussions can already be seen in the form of retreating of glaciers.
As the snow line and glacier boundaries are sensitive to changes in climatic conditions, these glaciers release more water in drought year and less water during flood time to ensure water supply during the lean years. One scary fact related to this is that, the 67 per cent of the glaciers in the Himalayan mountain ranges have retreated in the past decade, making the problem of water scarcity worse.
Incidents of recurrent droughts
Last year many states in India witnessed drought and experienced acute water scarcity. ‘Latur’ a small town in Maharashtra made the headlines due to intense water shortage. The whole situation was so bad that government had to send special water train/ Jal Doot. Similarly, many parts of India also badly suffered the problem of water shortage.
Endnote
Nature has enough for our needs, but not for our greed. This famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi would be apt to mention here for the cause of water scarcity in the country which should be fixed before it’s too late.
Receive Daily Updates
Recent Posts
Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.