Water Crisis in India ( Every drop counts) : GS: 3(Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation) EMPOWER IAS

Water Crisis in India

( Every drop counts)

 

Table of content In News Water crisis in India NITI Aayog report Centre Water Commission Steps taken by the government Measures to improve water governance Challenges in water governance Conclusion

 

Mains Questions: Q) Recently, India’s water crisis took over social media. In this context discuss the steps need to be taken to ensure a more useful and productive discourse about water governance challenges.   Q)"There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people - and the environment - suffer badly."    Discuss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In News:

• India’s ‘water crisis’ took over social media recently.

 

Water crisis in India:

• India’s cities are running out of water. Water scarcity can mean scarcity in availability due to physical shortage, or scarcity in access due to the failure of institutions to ensure a regular supply or due to a lack of adequate infrastructure.
• Chennai witnessed the worst drinking water woes.
• Niti Aayog’s report ‘Composite Water Management Index: A tool for water management’ stated that 21 major cities are expected to run out of groundwater as soon as 2020, affecting nearly 100 million people.
• Cities includes Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, will run out of groundwater by 2020; also, 40% of our citizens will have no access to drinking water by 2030.
• The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has been reporting on the increasing number of over-exploited blocks across India, labeled as the ‘dark’ category blocks.  The recent annual book of CGWB has reported 1,034 units, out of the 6,584 units it monitors, as over-exploited.
• CGWB’s 2013 estimates say that the groundwater development in India is just about 62% of the utilisable groundwater reserves.
• A recent report by the Central Water Commission and ISRO asserted that India is not yet in “water scarcity condition”, but in a “water-stressed condition”, with reducing per capita water availability.

 

 

 

Central Water Commission (CWC) : Central Water Commission is a premier Technical Organisation in the country in the field of water resources. It  is charged with the general responsibilities of initiating, coordinating and furthering, in consultation with the State Governments concerned, schemes for control, conservation and utilization of water resources throughout the country, for purpose of Flood Control, Irrigation, Navigation, Drinking Water Supply and Water Power Development. Is headed by a Chairman, with the status of Ex-Officio Secretary to the Government of India. The work of the Commission is divided among 3 wings namely, Designs and Research (D&R) Wing, River Management (RM) Wing and Water Planning and Projects (WP&P) Wing.     Composite Water Management Index’: This index is an attempt to budge States and UTs towards efficient and optimal utilization of water and recycling thereof with a sense of urgency. The Index and this associated report are expected to: Establish a clear baseline and benchmark for state-level performance on key water indicators Uncover and explain how states have progressed on water issues over time, including identifying high-performers and under-performers, thereby inculcating a culture of constructive competition among states Identify areas for deeper engagement and investment on the part of the states.

 

 

Steps Taken by the Government across the country:

 

• In Rajasthan, there is a scheme called ‘Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan’. One of its objectives is to ensure effective implementation of water conservation and water harvesting related activities in rural areas.
• Maharashtra has launched a project called ‘Jalyukt-Shivar’, which aims to make 5000 villages free of water scarcity every year.
• The Telangana government has launched a mission called Mission Kakatiya, the objective of which is to enhance the development of agriculture based income for small and marginal farmers, by accelerating the development of minor irrigation infrastructure, strengthening community based irrigation management and adopting a comprehensive programme for restoration of tanks.

 

Measures to improve water governance:

• Individual States need to assume the responsibility for managing water resources in their territories
• Centre and states should work towards an institutional change by building federal governance of water resources.
• India needs to reconsider the institutional processes for dissemination of knowledge about water resource management.
• There is need to recognise the crisis is not as much of scarcity as of delivery.
• The challenge is to ensure an adequate access to quality water, more so in urban areas where inequities over space and time are acute.
• Need to reconsider our approaches to water governance.
• The Centre has to work with States towards an institutional change for the necessary courseshift.
• To take water from a point of surplus to one of deficit.
• Water resource departments in States are following conventional approaches to supply augmentation. They should reorient themselves and deploy demand management, conservation, and regulation strategies.
• The water governance ought to be made transparent, accountable and participatory in every sub-sector, including management of rivers, groundwater, floods, and biodiversity etc.
•  Water-based technologies should have higher support and visibility in the new structure.
• Maintaining water security requires the support of a comprehensive legal structure.
• River Basin Organizations (RBOs) with institutional authority for keeping the river basin and groundwater aquifers in good condition and productivity need to be established.
• Individual States need to assume the responsibility for managing water resources in their territories.

 

 

Challenges in Water governance:

• Information: The lack of credible “water information,” that is, information about water storage, groundwater, water flows and, in some cases, even rainfall and snowfall levels.
• Multiple institutions: Central Water Commission (CWC), Central Ground Water Board, Central Ground Water Authority, State Pollution Control Boards and Central Pollution Control Board, among others.
• Unsustainable extraction: More recent research has reinforced that North India is most affected, and is guzzling down groundwater at a rate 70% faster than estimated earlier but western and southern India are not far behind.
• Absence of National Policy: Groundwater is going to remain India’s lifeline for a long time to come. But, neither national policy nor national or state water resource establishments acknowledge this reality.
• Water infrastructure: The water infrastructure continues to perform far below its optimum, as India is not allocating even a fraction of the required annual maintenance budget of $4 billion that it needs.
• Soil moisture: Soil moisture represents another major challenge. For the farmers facing increasingly irregular rains with changing climate, the increased capacity of soil to hold moisture is hugely useful, as also is the local water storage and sustained or enhanced groundwater levels.
• Water footprint: As the urban water footprint is going up by leaps and bounds in multiple ways, there is a need for a national urban water policy to guide the urban water sector.

 

Conclusion:

As ground water is going to remain India’s lifeline for a long time to come, the Government needs to holistically handle the supply as well as the demand side of water management The Union Government on its part has created a Jal Shakti Ministry under a full-fledged cabinet minister to try and address the water emergency, but a lot more needs to be done. All statekeholders in the society that its  the central government, the state governments, citizens, NGOs and companies need to come together to tackle water crisis in the country.

 

Source)

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/rethinking-water-governance-strategies/article28984738.ece