With water levels in India’s dams and rivers plunging, a major water crisis has erupted across the country. Water levels in the Bhakra Nangal dam are 50 per cent down lower than end June levels in 2011 while levels in Ranjit Sagar are 35 per cent down as compared to 2011.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a stern warning last month when he pointed out that we are currently consuming 60 per cent of our ground water resources without taking adequate measures to replenish it.
Water experts express equal concern about the fact that our mega cities are currently receiving water supplies from dams often located several hundred kilometres away.
“This results in huge transmission losses. Almost 40 per cent of Delhi’s daily water supply of 3,200 million litres is lost along a 9,000 km network of leaky pipes,” said Manoj Mishra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan.
Water distribution remains undemocratic. In Delhi, for example, the daily per capita consumption of VIPs in New Delhi is between 350-400 litres per day while urban slums do not receive even 15 litres of water per day.
The WHO quantifies per capita availability of water at 100-200 litres per individual per day.
The situation is much worse in the cities of Agra, Gurgaon, Kanpur and Jaipur where during May and June, people depend entirely on tankers for their water supply.
“Water levels in our major rivers, including Ganga, Yamuna, Cauvery and Narmada, are shrinking because of construction of dams, barrages and hydro-electric projects,” said Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.
“Ground and surface water share a dynamic equilibrium and ground water recharge is done from surface water sources,” Mr Thakkar added.
Despite having received an allocation of `3.31 lakh crores for irrigation for the current Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the ministry of water resources admits they have not been able to add a single ha of irrigated land in the last two decades.
The ministry of water resources has also admitted last month to a parliamentary panel that they lacked the technology to map aquifers which consist of rock formations capable of storing and transmitting groundwater.