Water Scarcity -- A Serious Problem

Water scarcity in India is a very serious problem. The more I read about it, more serious it looks to me. What surprises me is the fact that not enough public awareness is being created. Attitude towards conserving water in the urban society looks disturbing. And probably it will continue to happen the same way till the problem knocks at their door. Even then, what we will do is not take steps but blame government and bureaucrats for mishandling the issue.

There is direct water supply to most of the homes in well developed urban areas. Rich get water for free and poor have to shell out money for a few precious drops. People in rural areas or slums need to travel for many KMs and stand in the queue to get their limited quota of water.

Various studies have analyzed the water situation in India and concluded that we are heading for a bleak future. I am sure we don't need any study to tell us that the problem exists; but studies do help us understand the situation better and take appropriate actions. One of the studies by N.K Garg and Q. Hassan stated that water scarcity will be alarming as the projected demand of even 897 billion cubic metre (BCM), corresponding to low demand scenario, cannot be met even after full development of the water resources. They also said that underground water resources are already being over-exploited since 1997-98.

Our near complete reliance on monsoon means that unless we learn to conserve the rain water, problem is not going to disappear. Nearly 80-90% of water through river flows during the four months of monsoon. During non-monsoon months, we use what is stored.

For all practical purposes this year is a drought year; Government may take its own time to declare drought. A drought is declared when 20-40% of country's total area is rainfall deficient. Moderate drought is declared when rainfall is deficient by 26-50% and severe if it is more than 50%. So far we are 29% short of normal rainfall. But technically Government declares drought only after the monsoon period is over. Which means government will not do anything and a lot of damage will already be done.