Water Scarcity: The Biggest Cause
Lack of Fresh Water, Worst Hit Regions and Ways to Fight it
Water water everywhere, not a drop to drink.
The world is going through a serious water crisis. One of the biggest Indian city, Chennai almost ran out of the water. Globally cities like Cape Town, Flint, Michigan and almost entire California face serious water scarcity problems.
Water scarcity may be defined as an imbalance of supply and demand for water. It impacts the areas where a lack of infrastructure prevents sufficient access to water as well as the regions that have a physical scarcity of water. Water scarcity can be due to contamination of water as well.
Availability of fresh and clean water in sufficient quantity is a basic human right and necessary for survival.
Nature has always provided natural sites and favourable conditions for humans to live around water-related ecosystems. The water ecosystem has hugely benefitted human settlements and civilizations, via benefits such as transportation, biodiversity hotspots, food, forest, natural purification, irrigation, flood protection among others.
But the exponential population growth, agricultural intensification, industrialisation, urbanisation, have caused so much pollution and degradation of all-natural resources resulting in climate change. These have adversely affected nature’s ability to provide key functions and services.
As per a report by UN-Water, estimates suggest that if the natural environment continues to be degraded and unsustainable pressures put on global water resources then the following would be at risk
- 45% of the global gross domestic product (GDP)
- 52 % of the world’s population
- 40% of global grain production
Needless to say, poor and marginalized populations would be affected the most further intensifying the inequalities.
Agriculture (including irrigation, livestock and aquaculture) is by far the largest water consumer, accounting for 69% of annual water withdrawals globally. Industry (including power generation) accounts for 19% and households for 12%.
Let’s take a look at the global water crisis, it’s emergence, how humanity has been trying to tackle it, progress made and what is yet to be done.
Historical Timelines
1700s to 1800s: Commencement of the era of Industrialisation leads to increased urbanisation in England. The need and consumption of freshwater rise. This highlighted the need for clean water supplies and sanitation.
1800s: The first record of water shortage appears in historical records.
1900: Since 1900, drought has killed over 11 billion people and affected more than 2 billion people across the globe.
1993: March 22 declared as World Water Day by the U.N. General Assembly.
2000: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the U.N. member states. This included a 2015 target to reduce the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water to half.
2003: For fighting and coordinating issues of sanitation and freshwater access, UN-Water was founded.
2005: Almost 35% of the global population suffers from chronic water shortages, up from 9% in 1960.
2005 to 2015: During this International Decade for Action “Water for Life”, U.N. member states prioritize water and sanitation development.
2008: This year was recognised as The U.N.-recognized International Year of Sanitation prioritising health and dignity.
2010: The MDGs clean water access target is achieved five years ahead of time. Over 2 billion people gained access to safe drinking water since 1990. The U.N. General Assembly recognised the right of adequate supplies of water for personal and domestic use that are physically accessible, equitably distributed, safe, and affordable for each individual.
2013: Nov. 19 is declared as World Toilet Day by The U.N. to highlight the billions of people globally still do not have access to proper sanitation.
2015: In the last 25 years almost 2.6 billion people gained access to clean water and about 1.4 billion gained basic access to sanitation since 2000. The U.N. member states sign on to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — promising clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
2018: Globally almost 2.1 billion people still don’t have access to safe drinking water in their homes and more than 892 million people still don’t have proper sanitation.
Current Indian Scenario
India is home to almost 17% population of the world with only 4% of water resources. The distribution is also uneven. The population and need for fresh water are increasing exponentially whereas the sources of freshwater are depleting. A report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) shows that most of the Indian urban areas are water deficient. Almost 40% of water requirements in urban areas met by groundwater.
Due to this groundwater is depleting and water table in urban areas in falling almost 2–3 metres/year. This would have many negative impacts on the environment of the city. The lake, the trees, the river and the soil etc.
Water overuse in areas with irrigation agriculture causes acute water shortage and also environmental damage like soil erosion, soil salinity, and nutrient pollution etc.
In India over 90.41% of total water withdrawal is by agriculture activities like irrigation, poultry, cattle farming. fisheries etc.
Along with quantity, quality is also a factor in water scarcity. Millions of Indians don’t have access to clean drinking water. Hence, it becomes important for us to efficiently use and manage existing water resources.
The overall population of India is expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2050. This will result in increased demand for water, food, energy and all other resources. This calls for infrastructure expansion and more efficient resource utilisation.
India receives an average of 4,000 billion m3 of rains annually. 48% of it is used in India’s surface and groundwater bodies. Due to lack of adequate storage infrastructure and inefficient water management, only 18–20% of the water is actually used.
The demand and availabilty of water resources in India show stark variations in various regions and hence there is an inefficient and inequitable use and distribution of water.
Nearly 90% of the India population faces some form of water stress or food production deficit. Groundwater has been relatively abundant in most parts of India but with time and over-exploitation it has also been dwindling.
Agriculture in India and Water
Globally, India is the second-biggest producer of farm output. Agricultural and related activities like horticulture, poultry, forestry and fisheries accounted for 13.7% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Production) in 2013 and employed 50% of the workforce.
The irrigation infrastructure of India includes a giant network of canals from rivers, wells, tube well, and rainwater.
India has almost 160 million ha of cultivated land in India. 39 million ha of which is irrigated by groundwater, 22 million ha by canals.
About two-third of cultivation in India is dependent on Monsoon.
The classification of water-stressed and water-scarce as per the international norms: a country is classified as if per capita water availability goes below
- Water Stressed: When per capita water availability goes below 1700 m3.
- Water Scarce: When per capita water availability goes below 1000 m3.
India is classified as a water-stressed country with per capita water availabilty being 1544 m3 and moving towards becoming water-scarce with dwindling water sources.
Drought
Drought is a scary word associated with hunger, thirst, lack of food and water, malnutrition, millions of deaths. Drought is associated with lack of agricultural yield, high temperature and lack of rain. Drought impacts a country’s economic output, environment, wildlife, livestock and humans health directly or indirectly.
But there are very few people who understand the real definition of drought. Since there can be different reasons for dry weather conditions and lack of water, there are different types and definition of drought.
Droughts are broadly four types and their definition are discussed below:
Meteorological drought: It is specific to different regions. Depending on the amount of yearly precipitation that’s average for that area. A decrease in precipitation compared to the historical average for that area would qualify as a meteorological drought.
Agricultural drought: This type of drought accounts for moisture needs of crops during different growing stages. This refers to circumstances when soil moisture is insufficient and results in the lack of crop growth and production.
Hydrological drought: This accounts for the persistently low water volumes in streams, rivers and reservoirs. High drawdown of reservoirs, can worsen hydrological droughts. Hydrological drought is often associated with meteorological droughts.
Socioeconomic drought: This type of drought ccurs when the demand for water exceeds the supply. Examples of this kind of drought include too much irrigation or when low river flow forces hydroelectric power plant operators to reduce energy production. This is generally due to overpopulation and overuse of water.
Now, that we understand droughts, let’s talk about the Indian scenario. The latest findings reveal that although there are alternate dry and wet spells over the past three decades, the frequency of occurrence of drought years has significantly increased in India.
- 1950 -1989: There have been 10 drought years in 40 years.
- 2000–2016: There have been 5 drought years in 16 years.
- 2020–2049: The frequency is set to increase according to meteorologists
42% of the India’s cultivable land lies in drought-prone areas.
The lack of monsoons or below-average precipitation in some parts of India results in water shortages, resulting in below-average crop yields.
This particularly occurs in major drought-prone areas in such as Vidarbha and Marathwada regions in Maharashtra (Western India), Northern Karnataka (South-Western India), Andhra Pradesh (Southeastern coast of India), Odisha (Eastern coast of India), Telangana (Southeastern coast of India) and Rajasthan (Western India).
In the case of droughts, there is less water availability for agriculture than usual. This results in increased groundwater usage during droughts. This results in excessive water table depletion. The availability of groundwater decreases for agriculture than there was before, thereby causing even more pressure on agricultural production.
As an example, the Sonwati village in Latur district of Maharashtra groundwater was available within six meters, but now even 244-meter deep bore wells have gone dry.
In fact, sowing water-intensive cash crops in water-scarce areas by using groundwater is one of the major reasons for frequent droughts in these areas like in drought-hit areas of Maharashtra.
The Central Groundwater Board has categorised 16.2 % of the total assessment units, as ‘Over-exploited’. It has categorised another 14% as either at ‘critical’ or ‘semi-critical’ stage.
Most of the overexploited assessment units are in the northwest region of the country.
Irrigation Issues
In India irrigation consumes approx. 84 % of the total available water. Whereas, industrial and domestic sectors consume about 12% and 4 % of total available water, respectively.
Irrigation is predicted to remain the dominant user of water and hence more efficiency and less dependence on irrigation is the need of the hour.
Even after constructing 4,525 large and small dams, India has managed to create per capita storage of only 213 m3. This is minuscule when compared to Russia’s 6,103 m3, Australia’s 4,733, and China’s 1,111. Approx 52.7 billion USD has been allocated to the so-called major and medium Irrigation projects from the first five-year plan (1951–56) to the 11th (2007–12). But irrigation has reached only 45% of India’s net sown area.
India is heavily dependent on water from Himalayan glaciers and the annual monsoon rains. Both sources are highly vulnerable to climate change.
More areas with low irrigation intensity due to inappropriate geographical factors include large parts of Rajasthan to the west of the Aravali Range, parts of Bihar plain (Eastern India), the central part of Peninsular plateau, the Maharashtra (Western India) and Kerala coasts, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
Groundwater for irrigation
Globally, almost 40% of irrigation needs are met through groundwater and in India, it is expected to be over 50%. The groundwater is difficult to monitor and regulate, especially in developing countries due to its common pool nature.
States with the highest dependency on groundwater for irrigation include Punjab (79%), Uttar Pradesh (80%) and Uttarakhand (67%). Despite growing scarcity, groundwater irrigation in India remains highly inefficient from a technical point of view.
India’s third Minor Irrigation Census has shown that in 2001, only 3% of India’s some 8.5 million tube-well owners used drip or sprinkler irrigation and 88% delivered water to their crops by flooding through open channels.
Aquifers in poor, densely populated regions, such as Northwest India, are under maximum stress.
The Central Water Commission has the objective of promoting integrated, efficient and sustainable development and management of India’s water resources. They are working on the reservoir monitoring system, real-time water quality monitoring, flood forecast, river basin management, watershed development, rejuvenation of major issues etc.
The Central Ground Water Board has been set up to develop and disseminate technologies for implementing policies for sustainable management of groundwater resources including exploitation, assessment, conservation, augmentation, protection from pollution.
Central Water Commission and Central Ground Water Board have formulated “General Guidelines for Water Audit and Water Conservation”. These guidelines have been circulated to all the state governments and concerned central ministries and other utilities for framing their own specific guidelines.
For increasing water usage efficiency high subsidy has been given on water sprinklers/ drip irrigation systems.
The Indus River Basin, which is shared between India and Pakistan, has the world’s second most stressed aquifer. India is focused on how to restructure irrigation departments so that they can become competent to improve water delivery and management process.
It is worth mentioning that in some tehsils of Latur, there is no water even 304 meters below the ground.
Water Intensive Farm Produce
Highly water-intensive farm produce like cattle meat, sugarcane, cotton, rice and many such other crops are making India dry.
First, let’s talk about highly water-intensive plant-based crops that are really running out India’s aquifers and groundwater dry.
Plant-Based Crops
Rice, wheat and sugarcane constitute about 90% of India’s crop production and these are the most water-consuming crops. Rice, which is an important export crop, consumes as much as 3,500 litres of water for a kilogram of grain produced. The short-sighted farming practices of farmer-driven by their desire to earn more profit made them shift to natural crops in that area to high-value water-intensive cash crops like sugarcane.
Sugarcane: The farmers of Maharashtra who once grew millet, sorghum, and other cereals which were meant for that soil and climate. They have turned to sugarcane because it is high value but they didn’t foresee its impact on their water table.
Growing sugarcane in drought-prone areas is a sure shot recipe for water famine. Even though, Maharashtra is so dry the land area under sugarcane cultivation in Maharashtra increased from 1,67,000 hectares in 1970–71 to 1,022,000 ha in 2011–12.
Maharashtra is one of the most dry state of India but it is still the second-biggest producer of sugarcane, one of the most water-intensive crop after Uttar Pradesh. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar who also suffer from frequent droughts are leading producers of Sugarcane. These states don’t have enough water to meet daily requirements of citizens but still farmers are sowing sugarcane. Sugarcane mills in drought hit region of Marathwada has matters worse for Maharashtra.
Marathwada has highest suicide rate and 80 sugar mills within 8 districts.
But still sugarcane production and cultivation is increasing in drought hit states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat etc. Government needs to regulate sugarcane consumption else it will run these states dry.
India is the second largest producer of sugarcane, globally and four largest exporter of sugar. In the form of sugarcane we are basically exporting millions of litres of water.
This is called virtual water flow or virtual water export. India has net negative virtual water flow due to exporting such water intesive crops. China has positive net virtual water flow.
It has one of the longest growing periods and its growth stops in case of shortage of water. Therefore, the crop requires 1500–3000 litres of water to produce a kilo of sugarcane.
Sugarcane consumes about 22.5 million litres of water per hectare during its 14-month long growing cycle compared to just four million litres over four months for chickpeas, commonly grown in India and called gram locally.
Rice: Punjab is similar to Maharashtra but sugarcane is replaced by another water intensive crop rice. Over 60% of cultivable land in Punjab is growing rice. This was 10% in the 1970s. Farmers in Punjab and Haryana also exploited groundwater and hence water table has depleted by cultivating crops like rice, wheat and sugarcane.
Rice acts as one of the most important staple food round the globe. India is biggest exporter of rice in the world. Due to this the net virtual water flow in India is negative. Because its production requires a great quantity of water. Traditional farming needs 3,000 to 5,000 liters of water to produce a kilo of rice.
So with every ton of rice that we export, we export almost 5 million litres of water. And for every 100 gm rice that we waste, we waste almost 500 litres of water, energy and other resources.
The crop requires flooded soil for its growth as it suppresses weed growth and increases the uptake of nutrients from the soil for better yield.
In India, it is grown in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Haryana. A lot of areas in these states are drought hit.
Farmers in these states have drilled borewells to upto even 500 meters and still not able to find water. If farming of such water intensive crops in not regulated in India in favour of less water intensive crops like grams then soon the entire country will suffer major water crisis, and climatic changes.
It is not entirely farmers fault though. Government policies favour cultivation of rice and sugarcane. Power and water are almost free for these crops. The government buys sugar, wheat, and rice at remunerative prices, which assures economic justice to these farmers.
Government need to interven to reset the revenue balance in favour of less water-intensive crops. Sustained production of these thirsty crops will further deplete already scarce water resources in India.
The government currently asks farmers to shift to less water consuming crops, but does not support the change through policy measures. Erratic prices for vegetables, oilseeds, and pulses limit the incentives for farmers to plant them.
Wheat: After the Green Revolution, wheat production in India has been on the rise. After rice, wheat is the most consumed crop by the Indian population. India is the largest exporters of all varieties of wheat, making us and the second largest producer of the crop worldwide.
It requires 900 litres of water is required to produce 1kg of wheat. Wheat is generally produced in northern region. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttarakhand are the biggest producer of wheat in India.
Cotton: This is one of the biggest water guzzling crop in India. It’s Kharif crop. On an average, India uses 22,500 liters of water to produce 1 kg of cotton. The irony is most Indian cotton is grown in drier regions of the country.
India has the largest area under cotton cultivation in the world and it is the third largest producer of cotton after China and USA.
States cultivating cotton are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Orissa.
Animal Based Farm Produce
About one-third of the world’s water consumption is for producing animal products. Animal products are highly water, energy and land-intensive. Livestock production is consuming almost 35% croplands globally. And almost 30% of freshwater across the globe is used by animal husbandry. Animal products have a particularly large water requirement per unit of nutritional energy compared to food of plant origin.
For example, the total water footprint (WF) of pork (expressed as litres per kcal) is two times larger than the WF of pulses and four times larger than the WF of grains.
Let’s take a look at water footprints of mainstream animal farm produce:
Water used by livestock directly:
- On-farm irrigation water (feed production);
- Drinking water: At the farm stage both for primary production and for the finishing stage;
- Service and processing water: At the farm, finishing and slaughtering stages (including cleaning and cooling);
Water used by livestock indirectly:
- Irrigation water of purchased feed;
- Electricity production water requirements water used (consumed) to produce electricity. Electricity is used all along the production chain: Feed production (including the production of fertilizers and pesticides), primary production, finishing and slaughtering stages.
- Water required to produce fertilizers, pesticides, etc.
Bovine Meat (Beef): Cattle and buffalo are the main economically important large ruminants in the world with about 1.5 billion heads, in 2014. The water footprint of beef is one of the highest among different food items that humans consume.
The water footprint of meat from beef is 15400 m3 /ton. Which basicially means15400 litres of water is needed for production of 1 kg of beef. And if you throw away some 100 gm of beef as waste, you throw waste 1540 of water as well.
The average water footprint per calorie for beef is twenty times larger than for cereals and starchy roots. When we look at the water requirements for protein, we find that the water footprint per gram of protein for milk, eggs and chicken meat is about 1.5 times larger than for pulses. For beef, the water footprint per gram of protein is 6 times larger than for pulses.
Sheep/Goat Meat: Globally, there were 1.2 billion sheep and 1 billion goats in 2014. About 83% of the small ruminants are found in Africa and Asia. Small ruminant production presents diverse systems with different intensities and production objectives.
The water footprint of meat from sheep is 10400 m3 /ton and goat is 5500 m3 /ton.
Pork Meat: The world population of pigs in 2014 was about 987 million heads. 60% of them are found in Asia. Water requirements in poultry are strongly related to feed consumption and to the air temperature. Maturity and weight associated with diet, temperature, housing and feeding methods influence largely the swine water requirements.
The water footprint of pork meat is 6000 m3/ton.
Diary: Water constitutes 87% of milk, which can be considered as a standard (USDA 2016), and approximately 30% of water ingested by dairy cattle is incorporated in milk (NDSU 2015). Thus, dairy cattle water requirements are strongly influenced by the stage of production and level of milk production (NDSU 2015). The water requirements of lactating cows are closely related to milk production, the moisture content in the feed and environmental factors such as air temperature and humidity.
The water footprint of cow milk is 1000 m3 /ton.
Poultry: Water requirements in poultry are strongly related to feed consumption and to the air temperature. Once air temperatures exceed 30°C the expected drinking water intake can increase by 50% above normal rates. Increasing protein and salt concentration in the diet increases the drinking water intake by poultry.
The water footprint of chicken meat is 4300 m3 /ton and water footprint of chicken egg is 3300 m3 /ton.
Below is the table comparing the water footprints of different food items. It is obvious from the table that animal-based food items have a higher footprint than the most plant-based food items.
Global animal production requires about 2422 Gm3 of water per year. One-third of this volume is for the beef cattle sector; another 19% for the dairy cattle sector. Out of the total volume of water (98%) refers to the water footprint of the feed for the animals. Drinking water for the animals, service water and feed mixing water account only for 1.1%, 0.8% and 0.03%, respectively.
Virtual Water Flow
Virtual Water Flow basically means the hidden flow of water if food or other commodities are traded from one place to another. For instance, it takes 1,340 m3 of water (based on the world average) to produce one metric tonne of wheat. So a country is exporting 1 million tons of wheat, it is exporting 1340 million m3 water.
Virtual Water Export From India
India is the biggest exporter of virtual water in the world. The virtual water flows from states like Punjab (Northern India) is raising questions on water sustainability as if we continue with the current method. It is estimated that in 2010, India exported about 25 km3 of water embedded in its agricultural exports, equivalent to water demands of 13 million people.
India exports water-intensive crops such as rice, sugarcane, cotton and many more. India is the biggest exporter of beef, the food item with the highest water footprint. Groundwater depletion in India by 2050 may increase up to 75%.
India was a ‘net importer’ of virtual water till the 1980s. With the increase in export of grains, India became a net exporter of virtual water about 1% of total available water every year.
China remains a net importer of water as China imports water-intensive soybeans, cotton, meat and cereal grains while exporting vegetables, fruits and processed food. India, exports water-intensive rice, cotton, sugar, and soybean.
Most Effective Ways to Fight Water Scarcity
Now let’s try to understand how we can best fight water scarcity. Some ways can be personal and hence, immediate whereas some need policy-level intervention.
For personal choices, you can save a lot of water just by tweaking your lifestyle and consumption patterns. But for policy-level interventions, we need to create more awareness and push government authorities to take necessary actions.
Personal Choices
96% of water is consumed in India by agricultural and industrial activities combined. Domestic use accounts for 4% of water withdrawal. So while it is important to save water in daily household activities it won’t make a dent in water availability index if we keep wasting other resources.
- Every time we waste food, throw rice, roti, or meat away, we waste thousands of gallons of water along with it that was used in producing it.
- Every time we throw jeans, a pair of shoe, a bottle, an electronic, a paper, book, pencil etc without using them to their full capacity you again throw thousands of litres of water away.
Hence, it is important that we save water by changing consumption patterns and by utilising resources to their full capacity. Few ways of saving water could be:
- Reducing the consumption of food items with high water footprint like beef, rice, wheat, chocolate (Its water footprint is higher than beef, 24000 litres/kg), butter, pork, bacon, and steak etc.
- Opt for less water-intensive food items like grains, millets, vegetables, fruits, oilseeds and cereal etc. Try to slowly move to the consumption of less water-intensive options in your diet.
- Don’t waste resources in any form be it clothes, paper, electronics, plastic and don’t throw waste into aquifers, rivers and lakes.
- Don’t waste electricity as a lot of water is used in electricity production, so with every unit of electricity wasted, your wastewater in a proportional amount.
- Encourage rainwater harvesting and tree plantation whenever and wherever you can and discourage digging borewells and deforestation whenever possible. Forestation is the best way to fight most of such problems.
- Always try to find an alternative product or brand with lesser water footprint.
- Keep running awareness campaigns at a personal level for your family, friends, colleagues, neighbours to make them aware of the water crisis in India and what can they to make it better. Encourage, environmentally responsible behaviours in your peers, family, kids, and colleagues etc.
Policy Matters
India needs to review and change its current trend of producing water-intensive crops, such as sugarcane and rice in water-scarce areas. Also, it should review its policies related to exporting of water-intensive crops such as rice and cotton. Lack of adequate enforcement and monitoring or existing water policies undermines water governance and keeps deteriorating the water availability index of India.
- Conservative agriculture should be popularised to increase water efficiency in irrigation.
- Forest like farming practices should be encouraged rather than the monoculture of crops.
- Water pricing for the agriculture sector should be reviewed and revised.
- Watershed development must be planned to pave the way to safeguard the surface and groundwater recharge mechanisms.
- Policy intervention must be done to discourage cultivation of water-intensive crops in drought-hit, water-scarce and water-stressed regions in India.
- Policy interventions must be done to discourage groundwater consumption in areas where the water table has sunk below normal levels.
- Policy interventions are needed for discouraging or regulating digging borewells in urban and rural areas.
- Local-level water management, cultivation of natural and seasonal crops for a particular region, forestation and revival of dirty lakes, rivers and canals should be encouraged.
- Companies, citizens, industries throwing domestic and industrial waste in rivers should be penalised. Proper waste management from both industrial and domestic sources is needed so that they don’t pollute, rivers, lakes and ponds etc.
Summary
India is home to almost 17% population of the world with only 4% of water resources. The distribution is also uneven. The population and need for fresh water are increasing exponentially whereas the sources of freshwater are depleting. A report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) shows that most of the Indian urban areas are water deficient. Almost 40% of water requirements in urban areas met by groundwater.
In India over 90.41% of total water withdrawal is by agriculture activities like irrigation, poultry, cattle farming. fisheries etc.
India is heavily dependent on water from Himalayan glaciers and the annual monsoon rains. Both sources are highly vulnerable to climate change.
Nearly 90% of the India population faces some form of water stress or food production deficit.
Due to this groundwater is depleting and water table in urban areas in falling almost 2–3 metres/year. This would have many negative impacts on the environment of the city. The lake, the trees, the river and the soil etc.
States with the highest dependency on groundwater for irrigation include Punjab (79%), Uttar Pradesh (80%) and Uttarakhand (67%). Despite growing scarcity, groundwater irrigation in India remains highly inefficient from a technical point of view.
India’s third Minor Irrigation Census has shown that in 2001, only 3% of India’s some 8.5 million tube-well owners used drip or sprinkler irrigation and 88% delivered water to their crops by flooding through open channels.
Rice, wheat and sugarcane constitute about 90% of India’s crop production and these are the most water-consuming crops. Rice, which is an important export crop, consumes as much as 3,500 litres of water for a kilogram of grain produced. The short-sighted farming practices of farmer-driven by their desire to earn more profit made them shift to natural crops in that area to high-value water-intensive cash crops like sugarcane.
This brought disaster in Maharashtra where people switched from less water-intensive crops like millets to water-guzzling sugarcane running Maharashtra dry. Same happened with Punjab and Haryana with another water-intensive crop, rice.
India exports water-intensive crops such as rice, sugarcane, cotton and many more. India is the biggest exporter of beef, the food item with the highest water footprint. Groundwater depletion in India by 2050 may increase up to 75%.
It is estimated that in 2010, India exported about 25 km3 of water embedded in its agricultural exports, equivalent to water demands of 13 million people.
India was a ‘net importer’ of virtual water till the 1980s. With the increase in export of grains, India became a net exporter of virtual water about 1% of total available water every year.
On a personal level, we can fight water scarcity by reducing consumption of water-intensive food items like beef, steak, chocolate, bacon, rice etc and moving to less water-intensive alternates.
Every choice that we make whether it is food, clothes, paper, bottles, bags, anything, we can go for a less water-intensive alternate. Especially for food, clothes and paper.
On the policy level, the government needs to take action to discourage cultivation of water-intensive crops in drought-hit, water-scarce regions like Maharashtra. Cultivation of sugarcane in Maharashtra is increasing even when it is going through a serious water crisis.
The government also needs to do policy intervention to encourage rural economies based on their local, aboriginal crops, and produce and local-level water management.
Water efficiency needs to be increased in irrigation by encouraging conservating and forest farming based agriculture.
Everything is possible if we all are determined to do our part right. If we keep encouraging more and more people to make environmentally conscious decisions and keep pushing the government to do the policy intervention necessary for water sovereignty of India then within few years I am sure, we would see that per capita water availability has improved in India.
We need to fight this together with integrity and grit for a better India, a better tomorrow and a better world for the generations to come. :)
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