In the recent report of NITI it was reported that 60 crore Indians face water scarcity, 55% of the

wells have dried up and this is only going to increase as the water table is constantly depleting.
Another report which ranks cities with water crisis has included four of the Indian cities (Chennai-1,
Kolkata-2, Mumbai-11, Delhi-15) in top 20. , the World B has suggested water crisis will cost 6%
of the global GDP.

Reasons for the problem

• One of the most important reason is that we are more water for our daily use, crops and the
rain pattern has changed (the amount of rainfall is nearly constant but the duration of rainfall
has decreased)
• As we are becoming more prosperous our needs are increasing and so is the per capita water
consumption (water consumption has almost doubled while the population hasn’t increased
in that ratio).
• We are not well prepared to deal with erratic weather and short spell of heavy rainfall, which
causes floods in the monsoon and as the groundwater isn’t recharged because of heavy
surface runoff many places face a drought-like situation in summers.
• Cropping pattern has changed majority of the farmers nowadays are fertilizers, hybrid seeds
and are growing cash crops like sugarcane which requires more water (the water is taken
from ground but proper rainwater harvesting or groundwater recharging mechanism is not
followed, so the water table is constantly decreasing mainly in the areas of green revolution
like Punjab).
• 70% of the Indian rivers are contaminated.
• Water efficiency in the agriculture sector is as low as 30% (agriculture uses 85% of the
water resources, industry utilizes 10% and households 5%).
• Wells and bore obstruct underground streams.
• In cities, water leakage in houses and municipal supply is a huge problem.
• Of the total rainfall, 65 water goes into as runoff, and we are not able to save it or recharge
groundwater.
• Everyday almost 4 lakh of water goes into drain and only 20% of it is recycled.
• People have encroached upon natural water sources like lakes, ponds .
• Our cities have become concrete jungles and water has nowhere to go.
• Deforestation has aggravated the situation.

The way forward

• The government should make a water budgeting policy.
• Water harvesting should be promoted.
• Government and citizens should revive and construct traditional water harvesting systems.
• People need to change their lifestyle and save more water.
• Methods (ZBNF, drip irrigation, sprinklers, multilayer farming ) and crops that less water
should be used.
• Recycled water should be used in industries and farmlands.
• We need community participation in order to conserve water.
• Govt, Individuals should plant City forest or trees wherever possible, as for making a forest
one can use Miyawaki Forest or seed ball method.
• Govt. may provide Direct benefit transfer to farmers for creating ponds and doing watershed
management (awareness and training campaign will need to be run in all villages).
• Construction of wetland: Use of treated sewage water to fill it, Phytorid Wastewater
Treatment Technology by CSIR can be used to treat wastewater, it is low cost and almost
maintenance free or in individual DRDO’s bio-digester can be used.
• Strict monitoring of factories, which release untreated effluent in rivers and ground and large
fines for the same.