‘WWF identifies 100 cities, including 30 in India, facing ‘severe water risk’ by 2050’
- Category
Environment
- Published
10th Nov, 2020
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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.
30 Indian cities that will face a ‘grave water risk’ by 2050 according to WWF
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1. Jaipur
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11.Kolkata
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21.Jalandhar
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2.Indore
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12.Ahmedabad
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22.Pune
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3.Thane
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13.Jabalpur
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23.Dhanbad
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4.Vadodara
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14.Mumbai
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24.Bhopal
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5.Srinagar
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15.Lucknow
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25.Gwalior
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6.Rajkot
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16.Hubli-Dharwad
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26.Surat
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7.Kota
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17.Nagpur
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27.Delhi
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8.Nashik
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18.Chandigarh
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28.Aligarh
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9.Visakhapatnam
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19.Amritsar
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29.Kozhikode
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10.Bengaluru
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20.Ludhiana
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30.Kannur
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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”.