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India might run out of groundwater in 2020, drinking water by 2030: Reports

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New Delhi: Mad Max: Fury Road is a brilliant movie about a distant future where water is so scarce that civilisations have fallen to ruin because of an acute shortage of the resource. Unfortunately, what is shown in the movie may soon become reality as water shortage is a very real and fast-growing problem in the world. What comes as a surprise, however, is that India is on the short list of countries that will run out of water within a decade.

A surprisingly large number of Indian cities witnessed a shortage of water this summer, with Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu making headlines for coming close to declaring an emergency.

Rivers and other surface-level sources of water all over the country have been drying up since the last few years and more recently, it has become more noticeable. This, coupled with delayed monsoons have led the people to turn to groundwater, causing this precious resource to deplete at an alarming rate. The exploitation of the underground water reserves over the last two decades has also resulted in a steep fall in groundwater levels.

A special segment on CNN news channel recently reported that, based on a government report, without improved water management, 21 cities in India will run out of groundwater in 2020.

During the same segment, the reporter went on to say that if the water management did not improve, by 2030 a shocking 40 percent of India’s population will have no access to drinking water.

A decline in the average number of rainfall days, an increase in the number of dry monsoon days and a depletion in groundwater rate is what is reported to cause this projected water crisis in the country.

Successive droughts and erratic rainfall have led to an over-extraction of groundwater and has led to a 61 percent decline in the groundwater between 2007 and 2017. A lot of states have also abused the groundwater resource causing it to deplete at an alarming rate.

Tamil Nadu’s situation has become complex as eight of its meagre 25.5 per cent safe blocks contain saline water.

When it comes to rainfall, according to a weekly report of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cumulative rainfall for the Long Period Average (average rainfall received by the country during monsoon over a 50-year period) was recorded below 43 per cent between June 1 and 19 this year. 

While peninsular India recorded a 38 percent deficit in rainfall this year, Central India recorded a deficit of 54 percent. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and parts of Madhya Pradesh were close to being classified as ‘drought-hit’ till June 20.

Karnataka is the only state in the peninsular region of India to receive normal rainfalls this year. Central Maharashtra and the Konkan region received only a third of their average rainfall, while Tamil Nadu and eastern Madhya Pradesh reported deficits of 34 and 64 per cent. Even the western region of the country received just half of the expected rainfall this season.

According to the IMD, however, between June 27 and July 3, all the coastal states, except for Tamil Nadu, will experience above average rainfall. South-eastern parts of Madhya Pradesh are also expected to get above normal rainfall and the Northeast is expected to receive normal rainfall.

Rainfall in all other parts of the country is expected to be below normal to normal.

Another major cause for concern is a weekly report by the Central Water Commission, in which it said that of 91 major reservoirs in the country, 11 have zero percent storage. Another 59 reservoirs have reported storage of less than 80 percent of its average.

The water in the three major river basins of peninsular India — Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery — have also diminished excessively.  The Cauvery should ideally store 22 percent water based on a 10-year storage average, but holds a mere 12.57 percent. The Godavari and Krishna river basins hold 8.72 and 5.72 percent respectively.

The Ministry of Water Resources has predicted that in another 30 years, each Indian household will have about 1.1 million litres of water per year, down from 1.8 million litres in 2011. A country, as per global standards, suffers from water scarcity if the availability is below 1 million litres per capita per year.

India’s population is also expected to overtake China in the coming decades, meaning that there will be a greater strain on the resources and aggravate the crisis.

Currently, India ranks 120th out of 122 countries that are facing a water crisis.

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