Samikhsya Bureau
It may sound scary but to know that by 2020 over 100 million people in India may face dire shortage of drinking water is a reality that looms over all of us.
According to a report by the NITI Ayog, about 21 Indian cities including Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad may bear the brunt of acute shortage of groundwater. As a result, about 40 per cent of the Indian population will have no access to drinking water.
The Central Water Commission has more things to add that the authorities must take with serious caution and action initiative must be a priority. A mere tag of a ‘smart city’ may not help us to stand smart on a surface that is devoid of water.
The commission has found that inadequate rainfall always lead to a drought situation multiplying the problem of safe water. The commission issued an advisory in this regard in May this year. The advisory was for six states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telengana.
In fact, such occasion arises when the water level in reservoirs is 20 per cent less than the average of live water shortage figures for the past ten years. The report also says that by 2030 it can be very calamitous a situation when 40 per cent on India’s population will have no access to drinking water.
Further a report by the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) says that by 2050 the situation would further worsen as demand shall multiply. It is shocking that in a country where the quantum of splurge on political and other extravaganzas is getting astronomically high, on the other about 2,00,000 people in India die due to inadequate access to safe water.
There is another eye opener input from the McGill University, Canada and the Utrecht University in the Netherlands that “irrigation techniques, industrial and residential habits combined with climate change lie at the root of the problem”.
Official advisories in many states, cities or towns to prohibit installing of bore wells inside industrial and residential premises remain ineffective and there is no monitoring on such activities by the authorities concerned.
Change in the habits is essential and it is time when the governments must hear to the wake up calls and act.
