India’s water concern is often understood as one of being short on water. This is incorrect as the real issue is one of being overly reliant. India has had a long-term problem with groundwater being the main source for water.
Today, about 60 to 65 percent of India’s irrigation uses groundwater and approximately 80 percent of its drinkable water comes from groundwater. This excessive use of groundwater throughout India has brought some areas close to having no water at all because the water tables are dropping and the aquifers are being drained faster than they can be refilled.
As we recognise World Water Day, we must also recognise India has an unbalanced water management approach. Therefore, if we do not expand our sources of water, the issue will only get worse, both economically, socially, and environmentally.
The Limits of Groundwater Dependence
For many years, groundwater has represented an adequate source of potable water for all people living on Earth. Groundwater is available in most parts of the world’s surface area and has been plentiful for centuries. Groundwater has also been a source of invisibility; however, the resultant invisibility has been an element that has led to overuse and abuse of groundwater.
Excessive removal, lack of regulation in wells used to extract groundwater, and mismanagement of agricultural outputs have created a condition where groundwater is effectively non-renewable in most places across the globe. Many cities throughout India—including, but not limited to, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai—have experienced significant groundwater shortages; whereas, farmers located in non-urbanised areas have experienced declining agricultural yields and increased costs to secure groundwater.
Thus, the problem with groundwater is not only that it is depleted but rather that it is fragile. As a result, groundwater will not be sufficient by itself to meet the needs of the over 1.4 billion individuals living on the planet.
A Narrow View of Water Resources
India’s water systems have been historically based on four main sources: rivers, groundwater, lakes, and ponds. All four have played an important role in supporting human life for centuries. However, currently, they are under significant stress.
Rivers are becoming increasingly polluted and seasonal in their flow. Lakes and ponds have been built over or ignored. Groundwater has been so over-exploited, and although there is growing interest on desalination technologies in coastal areas, such technologies require significant amounts of energy and have geographical limitations.
Overall, this leads to a centralised and constrained water- supply system that is incredibly sensitive to the impacts of climate variability and an increasing population.
The Case for Diversification
Water resource diversification, rather than simply increasing the available supply, is fundamentally about resilience.
A diversified system prevents any one source from bringing down the whole system or network in the event of failure; it shares the risk evenly among the sources to mitigate the pressure on natural resources and allow for localised and site appropriate solutions to be implemented.
Emerging Solutions for a Resilient Future
Currently across India, there are multiple options available as supplements to the current water infrastructure.
Decentralising the way that we generate water can happen through the process of Atmospheric Water Generation (AWG), which takes moisture from the air and turns this moisture into drinkable water.
One of the biggest opportunities is through Wastewater Treatment and Reuse (WWT&R). In the urban landscape of India, billions of litres of wastewater are produced every day, and most of this wastewater is either not treated or is under-utilised. By using advanced treatment technologies, we have the ability to turn this into usable water for industrial, agricultural, and potentially even drinkable purposes.
Bridging the Urban–Rural Divide
The disparity in funding and policy support for water infrastructure between urban and rural areas is one of the critical issues in water infrastructure in India. Urban areas, as economic centres, receive significantly more funding and policy focus than rural and semi-urban areas. As a result, rural and semi-urban areas are often left with inadequate water infrastructure and sporadic or unreliable access to these resources.
From Policy to Implementation
There is an obvious solution to the problem; it will still be hard to execute. India has developed many innovative ideas, yet few have been implemented on a large scale.
Changing our perception of water is just as important; we need to view water as an open system with limited resources, to be managed, renewing and conserved, rather than a resource to be extracted from an ever-increasing supply.
A Defining Moment
It’s an important time for India, as we move forward on our journey with water. Decisions made today will impact whether or not we will ever experience civil unrest and repeated water crisis.
The future of having enough water for the needs of a growing population will depend on diversifying, or creating a distributed and balanced approach to building long-term, sustainable infrastructure for our water resources.
World Water Day is more than just a day for a reminder about how little of this resource there is; it is also an opportunity for us to rethink, redesign, and rebuild our water systems.
We are no longer asking whether India has enough water; we are asking whether India is using the right sources of water.
