Published: 7th Nov, 2020
A hundred cities worldwide, including 30 in India, face the risk of ‘severe water scarcity’ by 2050, according to a recent report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Context
Key-highlights of the Report
- The cities would face a ‘grave water risk’ by 2050 due to a dramatic increase in their population percentageto 51 per cent by 2050, from 17 per cent in 2020, according to a press statement by WWF-India.
- The cities include global hubs such as Beijing, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Mecca and Rio de Janeiro.
- Thirty Indian cities are also included in the list.
- More than half of the identified cities are from China and India.
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30 Indian cities that will face a ‘grave water risk’ by 2050 according to WWF |
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1. Jaipur |
11.Kolkata |
21.Jalandhar |
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2.Indore |
12.Ahmedabad |
22.Pune |
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3.Thane |
13.Jabalpur |
23.Dhanbad |
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4.Vadodara |
14.Mumbai |
24.Bhopal |
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5.Srinagar |
15.Lucknow |
25.Gwalior |
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6.Rajkot |
16.Hubli-Dharwad |
26.Surat |
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7.Kota |
17.Nagpur |
27.Delhi |
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8.Nashik |
18.Chandigarh |
28.Aligarh |
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9.Visakhapatnam |
19.Amritsar |
29.Kozhikode |
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10.Bengaluru |
20.Ludhiana |
30.Kannur |
What’s behind the situation?
- Rapid urbanization: Rapid urbanisation and lack of basic infrastructure have already made cities in India water-stressed.
- In June last year, one of India’s most populous cities, Chennai faced an acute water shortagewhen the cities four major reservoirs dried up after a delay in the onset of monsoons.
- Environmental problems: The analysis also cited issues like deforestation, soil erosion, overgrazing, air pollution and water pollution that contributed to the country’s environmental problems.
What measures are required to be taken?
- More investment in nature-based solutions: Cities needed to invest more in nature-based solutions and enhance the health of river basins, watersheds and wetlands to build resilience to water risks.
- Nature-based solutions include restoring degraded watersheds, reconnecting rivers to their floodplains, and creating urban wetlands be implemented whilst improving infrastructure and reducing water consumption.
- Public funding pool: To manage these initiatives, a public funding pool needed to be createdin collaboration with the private sector to invest, reduce risk and generate returns and fuel sustainable economic growth.
- Collaborative global efforts: Cities also needed to support greater global efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to avoid reaching these scenarios.
WWF emphasises on India’s Smart Cities plan
- The WWF analysis stressed on the importance of India’s Smart Cities initiative — about which the Government of Indiasays while there is a lack of a universally accepted definition of what a Smart City entails, it is a “wish list of infrastructure and services that describes” a city dweller’s “level of aspirations”.
- Noting how the Smart Cities initiative provides a framework for water management, the WWF report noted how “urban watersheds and wetlands are critical for maintaining the water balance of a city, flood cushioning, micro-climate regulation and protecting its biodiversity”.
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