Day 42 – Q 4.Which parts of the world are suffering from acute water scarcity? It is being feared that the situation will worsen even further? Why? Analyse.

4. Which parts of the world are suffering from acute water scarcity? It is being feared that the situation will worsen even further? Why? Analyse.  

विश्व के कौन से हिस्से जल की कमी से पीड़ित हैं? आशंका जताई जा रही है कि हालात और भी खराब होंगे? क्यूं? विश्लेषण करें।

Introduction:

Water touches every aspect of development and it links with nearly every Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).It drives economic growth, supports healthy ecosystems, and is essential and fundamental for life itself. Niti Aayog in its Composite Water Management Index Report highlights the fact that about 600 million Indians are about to face water scarce condition by 2030.

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Water scarcity conditions can be observed in the picture given below:

Cape Town, Karachi water crisis has adversely affected the locals, and caught global attention. Even India is not immune from this, recent Chennai water crisis is one such example.

Worsening future:

• Increasing Demand- Population growth, Industrialization, Urbanization etc would add on to the present crisis.
• Overexploitation of groundwater- Almost 50% of world population depends upon groundwater for its drinking needs. In India, almost 85% of underground water is used for agriculture and with the provisions such as free electricity, the depletion is taking place rapidly.
• Changing rainfall pattern- this can be seen by the delays in monsoon, reduced pre-monsoon rains and prevalent drought conditions.
• Water Pollution- this has been leading to eutrophication of surface water and contamination of groundwater.
• Poor water harvesting practices- water management has been really poor, poor implementation of water harvesting provisions in building codes.

Way Forward–

• Water harvesting practices- Encouraging the water harvesting movement, mandatory provisions for water conservation in building codes.
• River water Interlinking- this can reduce the disparity among regions and minimize the effects of drought and floods.
• Discouraging wasteful activities- can learn from “Day Zero” by Cape Town, where water taps in city are turned off and people had to use communal water taps to conserve water. Recently, the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has come up with guidelines for Water Conservation Fee (WCF), which has the potential to reduce wasteful use of water.

Conclusion

Recently government has constituted Jal Shakti Ministry and started #JalShaktiAbhiyan mass movement to encourage water conservation and sustainability. Even the recent letter written by Prime Minister to all sarpanchs, to undertake water conservation at village level is believed to bring behavioural change at local level.

Additional Information

• Water stressed condition- when annual per capita water availability is less than 1700 cubic metres.
• Water scarcity condition- when annual per capita water availability is less than 1000 cubic metres.
• Annual per capita water availability in India- 1545 cubic metres (2011), 1300 cubic metres (2030- Estimated by Niti Aayog).
• 21 Indian cities including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai will run out of groundwater by 2020 (Niti Aayog CWMI Report).
• Water is a state subject.
• India is home to 16 percent of world population but has only 4% of planets fresh water.
• IPCC Report 2014 warned that around 80% of world population suffers a severe threat to its water security.