India’s Water Plight

Wednesday, 08 February 2012

Background

Water management will play a key role in determining the state of food security in India in the coming decades, according to speakers at a symposium titled “India and the Age of Crisis: A Symposium on the Local Politics of Global Economic and Ecological Fragility”, held at the University of Western Australia last week.

Comment

Urbanisation is placing unprecedented pressure on water security in India. Coupled with the rise in consumption patterns, the pressure on the country’s water resources is growing, according to Anjal Prakash, senior fellow and project director of the Peri Urban Water Security Project, run by India’s SaciWater.

One of the problems is that over the past few years a growing informal groundwater market has developed in India. The private water tanker market has been flourishing across India, in the absence of government management. This water is sourced predominantly from the pre-urban regions, which are usually richer in surface and groundwater, Dr Prakash said. 

The market is informal in that it is not regulated by the government and escapes scrutiny or restrictions. Dr Prakash pointed to the city of Hyderabad as an example of poor water management leading to environmental problems and increasing water insecurity for the city. In Hyderabad, as in other Indian cities, there is a lack of recognition of community water rights and water security is not considered by urban planners.

Between 1989 and 2001, some 3,245 hectares of water bodies have been lost in the Hyderabad region.

Dr Doug Hill, senior lecturer at the University of Otago in New Zealand, believes India is in a triple crisis of climate change, food and finance. He says that India has 14-20 major basins that are classified as water stressed. Since the 1950s, water availability per person has declined by 70 per cent. Dr Hill says that if India has a crisis of water, it will become a South Asia crisis as well.

The problem India faces is due, by most accounts, to a general absence of regulatory mechanisms. In the future, India will not only need to clamp down on the informal groundwater market, which is withdrawing groundwater at unsustainable levels, it will also need to ensure water and the environment are factored into the legal framework for land ownership and property development. The Indian Government will also need to improve its taxation regime, to increase its revenue base and as a means of changing people’s behaviour. Foreign assistance to the country, including any that comes from Australia, should be centred on improvements in areas of government shortfall. 

Gary Kleyn

Manager

Global Food and Water Crises Research Programme

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