Is India suffering from the worst water crisis in its history?

Water-water everywhere, not a drop to drink. The water crisis in India has gripped the country massively and it is believed that nothing that the country does about to curb the real situation can hide its severity anymore.

No positive news about India’s growing economy, nothing exciting about the sphere of entrepreneurship and, no global feat gained by the respectable prime minister can solve this current issue. It’s so big. In fact, it isn’t even an issue. If you went to your favourite search engine right now and would type, “water crisis of 2018”, it would keenly direct to a plethora of web journals and reports that point to the true extent of the problem.

Never has India, in centuries worth of its history, faced as acute a problem with regards to this key life giver (also, a life-saver) as it is facing now. Here is a statistic, that holds the power to clog your mind with nothing else but despair.

As many as 60 crore people in India are being stifled by severe shortages of water. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, truth be told. A further 2 lakh people are dying, that too, every year, on account of the pressing concerns regarding water. Their deaths are caused primarily due to the shortages of water. Not our submission. Not the submission of any major research body based in the west of a leading media platform like the BBC or CNN either.

The above, in fact, is a finding by India’s own Niti Aayog. Stop whatever it is that you are doing. Unlearn what the propagandists are telling you about the other real concerns that are surrounding the country and focus your faculties toward this unavoidable crisis that stands in midst of all of us. The water crisis of India is so bad that it can tether peaceful lives ahead in entirety.

The most stunning declaration or finding- doesn’t matter what nomenclature it holds- is this. By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice of what it is at the current moment. It will be twice of the current water supply and this will imply a severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people. So grim is slated to be the then state of affairs that the situation would result into a 6 per cent loss in the GDP of the country.

Did we think it would come down to such a rotting situation?

The Niti Aayog report’s finding on the water crisis of India is surely going to confound even the most eternal optimists. If you thought a good day was ruined by such a feisty and blazing bit of news, then the woe does not end here.

According to the Water Quality Index the cities the data from independent agencies, it has been found that nearly 70 per cent of the current water in India is contaminable. In a simple sense- it only means that while the problem we first thought was about a sheer lack of water that was available at a Pan-India level, only runs deeper with the finding that whatever is there is hardly manageable.

First reactions after reading the report point to the government. What is it going to do now with the issue? This leads to the next big question. Can the general public at large, use water correctly?

It all boils down to the proper usage by the civilians and the countrymen. What measures can actually be put into place to ensure that abhorrent wastage does not take place-which, we all know happens all the time?

Here’s what is a burning issue: it stressed that there is an imminent need to deepen understanding of water resources and usage. The worst hit, according to the said report, will be New Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, that will run out of groundwater by 2020. This will in turn, affect 100 million people alone in just the top urban centres of the country.

Here’s why the findings of the Niti Aayog are not only important but telling. Niti Aayog has ranked all the states through first of its kind index on the composite water management, comprising 9 broad sectors with 28 different indicators covering various aspects of groundwater, restoration of water bodies, irrigation, farm practices, drinking water, policy and governance.