Data from the World Bank also highlights India’s plight:
Let us now analyse the sources of drinking water in India and the reasons for shortage of drinking water
Some of the crucial issues faced by the water sector in India include
Water disputes have a potential impact on the overall economy, socio-cultural fabric, political stability, and security of not only the regions in which they occur, but also affect the entire country. However, the current solutions treat only the symptoms and not the root cause of the problem. Inter-State water Disputes Amendment Bill, 2017 has been introduced to speed up the dispute resolution process. As per the bill, Single Permanent Tribunal is to be set up which will have multiple benches.
3. Pollution: The quality of drinking-water is a powerful environmental determinant of health. Water pollution has reached an alarming level in India and has contributed to water scarcity by polluting freshwater resources, thereby limiting options.
River Pollution: Despite Namami Gane, water quality of Ganga continues to worsen. The waters of the Yamuna, Ganga and Sabarmati flow the dirtiest with a deadly mix of pollutants both hazardous and organic. India’s rivers have high fluoride content and are also contaminated by antibiotics, beyond the permissible limit of 1.5 ppm, which affects 66 million people nationwide. The Ganga river basin that covers 26.3% of India’s Geographic area cannot be used for any purpose, including drinking, cooking or bathing. As per the World Water Development Report, 2019, it has been revealed that coliform bacteria and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) have increased significantly in the Ganga river Because the rivers are too polluted to drink and the government is unable to deliver freshwater, many urban dwellers are turning to groundwater, leading to its rapid depletion.
Groundwater (GW) Pollution: India is the largest consumer of GW in the world. As per the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) nearly 90% of the rural water supply is from GW sources. However, high levels of Arsenic and Fluoride are found in the states of UP where around 78% of population lives in rural areas and are dependent on GW for drinking, cooking and irrigation. Government data revealed that over 45 million are affected with groundwater contaminated with fluoride, arsenic, iron, salinity, nitrate and heavy metal. The World Water Development Report has revealed that India extracts almost one fourth of total groundwater extracted globally
Apart from rivers and ground water, many other water sources are contaminated with both bio and chemical pollutants, and over 21% of the country's diseases are water-related. Recently, in February 2019, a report from International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) stressed that India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China together account for more than 50% of the world’s groundwater withdrawals.
4. Inter-sectoral conflicts: Reliability on water to cool the power plants is one of the largest sources of water withdrawals. Water demand in both Agriculture and Power sector is set to increase tremendously in the coming years.
5. Inefficiency and lack of infrastructure: Water storage infrastructure in India remains one of the lowest in the world. There is also a marked absence of adequate number of well-equipped and functioning sewage treatment plants
6. Climate-Change: Erratic distribution of rainfall, often leading to floods and drought impact drinking water supply. Future predictions include worsening of the situation due to a disturbed hydrological cycle and regional climatic variability.
7.Lack of local Community Participation: Policies and systems are designed and constructed with little participation from local communities.
For the drinking water to be of greatest purity, every government enforces standards which classify certain qualities of water as usable and the others as non usable. Indian government has recognized these standard guidelines and put them as a part of legal framework. (Indian Standard Drinking Water Specification (BIS 10500: 1991). UNICEF is also supporting GOI programs on arsenic and fluoride mitigation. National Water Policy also clearly establishes that provision to provide adequate and assured safe drinking water is of utmost priority in the country.
Waterman of India
Ramon Magsaysay awardee Rajinder Singh is a well known water conservationist and environmentalist. He is credited with harvesting rain water for drinking and domestic purposes by building check dams in Alwar and nearby districts of Rajasthan. The idea was to revive the use of traditional technology of Johad, an ancient water conservation technique to replenish the water sources. Johad is a concave structure that collects and stores water throughout the year for drinking purposes by humans and cattle. It is the successful implementation of this ancient innovation that earned him the name 'Jal Purush' or the 'Waterman of Rajasthan'. The sincere efforts of ‘Waterman’ for eradicating drinking water scarcity in the rural areas of Rajasthan inspired many NGOs within the country and abroad. The transformation was visible and long term. Now, women need not walk for miles to fetch water, neither do men have to leave their homes for work, as the land under cultivation in villages have increased manifold and farm incomes have been on a rise. He also played an instrumental role in revitalization of five rivers that had gone dry for long time.
Bunker Roy – A mix of Technology and Tradition
Bunker Roy is an Indian social activist and educator who founded the Barefoot College. It is based in Tilonia, which is a small village in Rajasthan. What makes this college unique is that it believes in identifying and using skills, knowledge and practical experience of ordinary people in the community itself to provide for basic needs such as drinking water. The College takes men, women and children who are illiterate and semi-literate from the lowest castes, and from the most remote and inaccessible villages in India, and trains them at their own pace to become “barefoot” water and solar engineers.
A hundred year old traditional method to collect rain water through roofs with low cost materials came to the rescue. Economically it is cheaper and the village committee could be empowered to control and distribute the water without being dependent on the outside for any technical, human and financial resource. The college confidently rejects the outside professionals and does not believe in technology that deprives people of their jobs, increases dependency and leads to exploitation. They believe that the mindset of the technological engineers is that problems of water shortage and drinkability can only be solved if expensive and deep well drilling rigs exploit the ground water or pump water from a permanent water source through pipes. However, people of the Tilonia village rejected the idea and instead resorted to simpler cost effective solutions. The college’s staggering achievements include regular piped water supply systems to atleast 10 villages around Tilonia designed and implemented entirely by the local people.
Ralegan Siddhi - A Case Study
Raleghan Siddhi is in a drought-prone and rain-shadowed area of India which faced a severe water crisis that resulted in people having to struggle to find drinking water during part of the year. IN 1975, Anna Hazare who had once lived in the village, returned, determined to improve the situation of the country. He began to involve the community and especially the youth. In order to bring back water, he undertook projects with the villagers to construct nalla bunds, install boreholes and hand-pumps to provide drinking water. The village does not any longer have to worry about having drinking water year round, and the woman no longer have to walk long distances to fetch water.
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