It often seems like the root cause of our water crisis is actually a health issue – memory loss. It’s as if the onset of monsoon wipes out our memory of the water scarcity in summer.
Floods make us forget that our water woes do not just pertain to scarcity of water, but excess of it as well. We never seem to remember that this is a cycle repeating itself every year, and has been progressively getting worse over the past seven decades.
The acute shortage of water in some of our cities has overshadowed scarcities in several parts of rural India. Scarcity within cities or across rural India is not new, since inequity in access and availability of water is a reality that the urban poor and those in drought-prone/water-scarce parts of rural India have had to learn to cope with over the years.
Our cities may very well run out of water, but will the wealthy residents of urban India run out of water? No. Our planners and governments will continue to transport water from rural parts to our cities to supply subsidised water, at increasing costs. In urban versus rural, urban will win!
Clearly, the new government has recognised the enormity of the problem and made water a priority. The formation of Jal Shakti Ministry, letters by the Prime Minister to the elected head of every Gram Panchayat exhorting them to focus on water conservation, the recently launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan and the budgetary allocation of Rs 10,000 crore for this year are clear signs of the intent.
If a movement on water conservation were to be launched countrywide, involving the average citizens of this country, rural or urban, then this is the moment.
The policy emphasis on water seems to have two dimensions.
First, on water conservation with an immediate push to conserve as much of the rainfall from our monsoon this year, as possible.
Second is the ambition to ensure that every household in the country has access to piped water supply by 2024. It’s a massive undertaking, given that the proportion of rural households with piped water supply is currently estimated at 18 percent.
We are the largest extractor of groundwater in the world. A significant portion of the needs of urban India is met from groundwater. A little over 80 percent of ground water in India is used by agriculture alone.
This will require significant political will and incentives or penalties to drive this efficiency. Even attempts at regulating groundwater extraction will be a challenge without administrative and political will.
Groundwater is free. The cost of water does not figure in the value of products produced using them. There are no incentives to use it judiciously. For the rest, we are all beneficiaries of subsidised water, which inhibits both conservation and efficient use.
One of the reasons why rainwater harvesting has not grown is because of this. Until we recognise the true cost of water, we will not value it and conserve it.
The ambition to provide every household in India with piped water supply by 2024 is an audacious goal. Getting the pipes in place is the least of our worries.
In attempting this, six key areas will need focus:
Big, hairy audacious goals, a tight time-frame and a campaign mode backed by political commitment at the highest level make a difference in India. However, we also need to remind ourselves constantly of another peculiar health problem that we are prone to – Targetitis.
Our water challenge requires commitment, an appreciation of the complexity of the problem and periodic doses of realism to ensure that we get it right.
(The author VK Madhavan is the Chief Executive at WaterAid India. He tweets as @vkmadhavan. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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