Part 1: We Need Better Metrics to Track Progress on India’s Water-Stressed River Basins
The Water Resilience Coalition, an initiative of the United Nations Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, aims to preserve the world’s freshwater resources through collective action in water-stressed basins and ambitious, quantifiable commitments. As part of this initiative, the Water Resilience Coalition has undertaken analyses to understand the status of water-stressed basins across the world in order to drive water-related collective action among companies and create a positive impact in 100 basins across the world.
Rashmi Kulranjan, Vidhyashree Katral, Ganesh N Shinde and Shashank Palur
Groundwater levels in India are falling, water quality is deteriorating and fewer people have access to safe, reliable water supply due to drinking water source failure and contamination. With climate change causing more intense and frequent extreme weather events such as floods, heatwaves and droughts, there is an urgent need for action to alleviate water crises in regions where millions of people are at risk.
To tackle problems at this scale, collaborations across all sectors — agricultural, domestic, commercial and industrial — are essential. Industries and corporations, in particular, have begun to take part in sustainability efforts through mechanisms such as the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) framework. Additionally, given the larger context of water stress in India, it is in the interest of corporations to mitigate water risks which, if left unaddressed, could lead to operational disruptions and costs.
Read | Net Water Positivity in the Indian Context
But these efforts have also brought risks, as several corporate houses have been accused of greenwashing. There is now a push for more sustainable practices as well as transparency in reporting. Given the increasing scrutiny on how ESG commitments are being met, companies are now investing considerable sums to burnish their sustainability credentials.
One of the underpinnings of such corporate action is better metrics. Discerning which geographical areas and sectors are most at risk, and engaging with all stakeholders in the ecosystem, is necessary to ensure long-lasting change and avoid unintended consequences.
It is in this context that CSEI-ATREE’s analysis of problems impacting India’s important river basins in terms of water availability, quality and access is significant.
Through a study of GIS (Geographic Information System) map layers, supplemented by a review of secondary data including government reports and research papers, we assessed levels of water stress specific to three river basins — Cauvery, Krishna and Ganga. We gained an understanding of major problem areas, shared challenges that need immediate attention and identified baseline conditions related to water in the three basins. We also determined desirable endline conditions and listed partnerships that already exist in these basins for improving water security.
The methodology and findings were closely guided by the structure and objectives put in place by the Water Resilience Coalition. This two-part blog series sums up our findings on metrics of water stress, the methodology we followed and limitations.
The Water Resilience Coalition and achieving Net Positive Water Impact
In this first part, we detail the context of the work we completed as part of our partnership with the CEO Water Mandate and the Water Resilience Coalition on corporate water stewardship.
There are six broad parameters for assessing water stress — water availability, quality, accessibility, crisis, governance and changes in important water-related areas. Before we elaborate on how we carried out our analysis of these indicators, it is important to first get a sense of the rapidly-evolving landscape of corporate water stewardship within which our work fits in.
There are initiatives spearheaded by international organisations like the United Nations Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, set up to bring together companies aiming to ‘do business responsibly’ and enable them ‘to take strategic action’ on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Within this framework, the Water Resilience Coalition was founded to mobilise companies working to reduce water stress and drive collective action through quantifiable goals.
On the individual level, it is to drive companies to deliver NPWI (Net Positive Water Impact). But more importantly, it is on the WRC collective action side, stimulating companies to work together to have a positive impact in 100 basins (this is the target outcome). The WRC selected India as one of the priority countries for member companies to invest in water security and resilience projects.
CSEI-ATREE partnered with the WRC in November 2021 to arrive at metrics for the Indian river basins prioritised by the WRC.
The Cauvery, Krishna and Ganga basins were selected based on WRC’s assessment of global datasets on water quality, quantity, and accessibility. They also factored in ‘locations of interest’ shared by member companies and potential implementation partners.
After selecting ‘priority basins’, the WRC developed a standardised template for a basin diagnostic. The next steps were to develop a more detailed and context-specific version of this basin diagnostic for each region in India using local data to better understand the nature and extent of the most urgent water challenges
CSEI’s work with WRC aims to create standard metrics and defining thresholds for the three basins we were mandated to study. For example, to understand challenges around water quality, our study looked at local and international standards to categorise areas and thus prioritise efforts.
In Part 2 of this blog series, we elaborate on our findings, limitations and next steps.
