Water Drying up in India; Will 'Leila' Turn into Reality?

Guwahati, June 24, 2019:

It seems like we are one step closer to the dystopian society depicted in Netflix's smash hit drama 'Leila' (in case you haven't heard about it, which rock have you been hiding under?)! 'Leila', which is set in the future, presents a rather bleak picture of the country in the future as water has dried up and the air has turned noxious, which leads to a society which spirals out of control and violence and crime soon become the norm.

The story of 'Leila' does not seem too far-fetched if you compare it to what is happening in India right now. India is facing one of its major and most serious water crisis. After two consecutive years of weak monsoons, 330 million people are affected by a severe drought.

With nearly 50 per cent of India grappling with drought-like conditions, the situation has been particularly grim this year in western and southern states.

According to the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released by the Niti Aayog in 2018, revealed that 21 major cities (Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others) are racing to reach zero groundwater levels by 2020, affecting access for 100 million people.

However, 12 per cent of India’s population is already living the 'Day Zero' scenario, which is a result of excessive groundwater pumping, an inefficient and wasteful water management system and years of deficient rains.

The CWMI report also revealed that by 2030, the country's water demand is projected to be twice the available supply. This implies severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual six per cent loss in the country's GDP.

The Union government recently formed a new Jal Shakti (water) ministry, which aims at tackling water issues with a holistic and integrated perspective on the subject. The ministry has announced an ambitious plan to provide piped water connections to every household in India by 2024.

The ministry has set a tough target at a time when hundreds of millions don't have access to clean water. Aiming at laying huge pipeline networks for water supply means that yet again, we are giving more preference to infrastructure.

This indicates that there is a clear disconnect between water, society and economy.

Also, in many Indian cities, water is not properly distributed. Some areas of mega cities like Delhi and Mumbai are privileged to get more that than the standard municipal water norm of 150 litres per capita per day (lpcd) while other areas get 40-50 lpcd.

Aggravating the problem is that the water being supplied currently is of drinking water standards.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that an individual requires around 25 litres of water daily for meeting his/her basic hygiene and food needs. The rest is used for non-potable purposes like mopping and cleaning. This indicates that for most of the non-potable uses, a quality lower than drinking water is required. Thus, for economic efficiency and environmental sustainability, water must be treated and supplied according to usage.

To top this, are issues of leakage losses, water pricing and metering of water. Lack of proper maintenance of existing infrastructure causes further losses of almost 40 per cent of piped water in urban areas.

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