Government of India have taken no action since Niti Aayog report in 2018 on water crisis in India. The report stated that water crisis will hit 600 million Indians. PM’s Modi’s assertion of providing clean water to every household by 2024 seems like a distant dream with the water crisis looming. Forget conservation of water, government’s agriculture MSP policy promotes cultivation and growing of water guzzling crops.
The Report
Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh stated in the parliament that India is facing a serious water crisis. India constitutes of 17% for the world’s population but has only 3.5% of the world’s water resources. Around 80% of the country’s water comes from the groundwater. Citing to the report, ‘Composite Water Management Index’ published by Niti Aayog in June 2018, the minister said that 600 million people in the country under the spell of a water crisis.
70% of the country’s water is contaminated and the country ranks 120th among 122 countries in the water quality index. Besides, the 5th Minor Irrigation Census conducted by the Ministry of Jal Shakti points to 20.52 million wells in the country. This includes dug wells, medium tube wells, shallow tube wells, and deep tube wells. Further, the report estimates that groundwater in 21 major cities will come to an end by 2020. However, the ministry confirms spending of Rs 30,000 crore in the last five years for water conservation programs. He also bought up the fact the government has no plans to bring water under the concurrent list from the state’s list. Still this action is not enough to avoid the water crisis as India struggles to educate farmers on cultivating water conserving crops.
Actions Taken
People have already initiated the process of planting 2.42 billion trees under Kaveri calling. The Ganga covers 26% of Indian geography and provides for one-third of agriculture. But 70% of trees on the Ganga Basin were destroyed in the last 70 years. Recommending tree plantation as the solution, experts state that 10,000 trees can hold 36 million liters of water. The Ministry of Jal Shakti is planning to install desalination plants alongside the coastline to tap water and solar energy.
In conclusion, the water crisis is an alarming situation that needs immediate attention from the country’s people and the government.