Opinion | Columnists
Water crisis can derail India's progress
The country's politicians should realise that time is ticking away.
- By Manik Mehta, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:09 May 8, 2008
While the Indian Government should be applauded for trying to ensure a long-term supply of cheap energy and raw materials for the country's future industrial development - India's recent summit in Delhi with heads of state and government of a number of African countries illustrates its courtship of resource-abundant regions - very little attention has been paid to another important element that could make or mar the country's future development - water.
For India's multitudes, particularly in the rural region, water has always been a luxury. "Water does not flow from the tap," is a common pun heard in India's villages.
Although water supply has considerably increased since India's independence, it has not matched the increasing pressures resulting from an exploding population.
Except for India's visionary first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and a few others, Indian politicians have not done enough to ensure an adequate and sustained supply of water not only for its population but also for its agriculture and budding industries which need inexpensive and reliable supplies of both energy and water.
Nehru applied his wisdom by building dams which would mitigate the acute shortage of water supply and, eventually, keep pace with the growing demand resulting from India's burgeoning population.
Michael von Hauff, a German economics professor at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern and a specialist in South Asia, recently highlighted India's economic strengths and weaknesses during a lecture delivered under the auspices of a Frankfurt-based organisation called Indo-German Forum.
"Shortage of water can be an acute problem in India and can considerably impair its economic development," he told this writer.
Water is also needed to clean up the environmental mess that is ubiquitously visible in India's big cities. Mumbai is a classic example of a city growing beyond its limits and, literally, expanding into the Arabian Sea, if one takes into account the reclamation process needed for construction of buildings built on what was once the sea.
Experts say that with exploding population, rising environmental destruction, water shortage and pollution - all harbingers of diseases and ailments - Mumbai is one of the worst cities to live in, as far as quality of life is concerned.
Constant competition
India faces a constant competition over water between farmers and urban dwellers, environmental conservationists and industrialists, tribal people and entrepreneurs.
As the world's second most-populated country, India is expected to overtake China's population by 2050 when it reaches a staggering 1.6 billion, putting extreme pressure on water resources.
In 2006, India's annual water consumption - between its domestic, agricultural and industrial sectors - touched 829 billion cubic metres. By 2050, demand is expected to double and exceed 1.4 trillion cubic metres.
India's water supply woes are, largely, attributed to wrong management of water resources, aided by over-pumping and pollution and exacerbated by erratic and unpredictable weather.
The Green Revolution, which India achieved by expanding farm yields and using genetically improved seeds, could give way to a food crisis, signs of which are already on the wall.
Agriculture currently uses about 90 per cent of total water resources. However, this water-intensive irrigation has also caused groundwater depletion because India draws some 80 per cent of its irrigation water from groundwater.
From a net grain exporter, India could become a net importer of food if Indian farmers do not resort to less-water intensive crops.
Water can also create problems between India and its neighbours. India and Pakistan, for example, have been locked in a conflict over the water issue since 1947 despite both signing the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
Rivalry over the Indus River resources is still a source of tensions between both countries which face problems that include flooding or drought in a number of regions, inefficient and inadequate irrigation, inadequate supplies of clean water in both rural and urban areas, ground-water depletion and contamination, etc.
Pakistan, whose per capita water availability has fallen from 5,600 cubic metres at the time of independence to 1,200 cubic metres in 2005, is expected to see a 50 per cent loss in water storage capacity by 2010.
Indian politicians should realise that time is ticking away and if they did not work towards a solution, India's water-shortage problem could worsen, leading to huge economic and industrial problems as well as social unrest. Result-oriented action, not lip service, would help.
Manik Mehta is a commentator on Asian affairs.
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