In the parched village of Dengamal in Maharashtra, situated 140 kilometers from
Mumbai, there are no taps, just like in most of the villages in India, tap water is a distant
dream. Here water comes from two wells. Naturally, there is a waiting of two to three
hours. Villagers here have invented a new solution by having WATER WIVES.
Sakharam Bhagat has three wives, two of whom he has married solely to assure that
his household has enough water to drink and cook. And there’s not one Sakharam,
rather there are many Sakharams in this village. In Maharashtra only, more than 19000
villages have no access to water.
If someone asks, what’s the biggest threat to the world or the human race, a nuclear
weapon would be the probable answer. But there’s another threat which is much more
gruesome than the nuclear threat is the “Water Crisis”. Water scarcity in India is an
ever-growing and ongoing crisis. It affects nearly 600 million people each year. In
addition to affecting the huge rural and urban population, the water scarcity in India extensively affects the whole ecosystem and of course the agriculture.
India has only 4% of the world’s freshwater resources. At least 21 major Indian cities are
on the verge of running out of groundwater. India is the world’s biggest groundwater
user. In 2010, India extracted 251 billion cubic meters of water, whereas the US
extracted 112 billion cubic meters of water. It has diminished and contaminated major
water resources. India has also been severely lacking in the treatment of wastewater for
reuse.
India is currently ranked 120 among 182 countries in the global water quality index. If
we look globally, close to four billion people live in the water-scarce areas. The number
will go up to five billion by 2050. As many as 100 crore people in India live in areas of
physical water scarcity. Out of these 100 crores, 60 crores are in high to extreme water
stress zones. CWMI (composite water management index) states that by 2030, the
country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply at least hat time.
Jal Shakti Ministry has announced an ambitious plan to provide a piped water
connection to every household in India by 2024. How it can be made possible is a big
question, when hundreds of millions of s people, don’t even have access to clean water.
Aiming at laying a huge pipeline network for water supply, can’t assure water supply in
the absence of availability of adequate water. The burning question is how to arrange
that volume of water, and secondly how the wastewater, thus generated in the process
will be managed.
There seems to be a clear disconnect between the water, the society, and the economy.
We are valuing land more than the water, neglecting our local water bodies, which have
been a definite source of water for the times unknown to us. They have either gone dry
or encroached. There's a Chinese proverb, which says that a frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives. But India seems to have been doing the opposite to that when it
comes to water. Taking a limited and indispensable resource for granted, now about
1.38 billion people in this giant pond must stop draining it dry.
One kg of rice requires an average of 2800 liters of water. So just for rice only, a family
of four consumes approximately 84600 liters of virtual water in a month. In 2014-15
India exported 37.2 million tons of basmati rice. To export this rice, the country used 10
trillion liters of water. It means, virtually we had exported, 10 trillion liters of water. The
water aid report said that food and clothing imported by wealthy western countries are
making it difficult for many poor and marginalized communities to get a daily clean water
supply. The reason is that the high-income countries buy products with considerable
water footprints (the amount of water used in the production).
Read Also : The Great Plains of India are the rare gift of the Great Himalayas,https://greenstories.co.in/himalayas-the-great-plains-of-india-are-the-rare-gift-of-the-great-himalayas/
A recovery-based closed-loop system is the need of the hour. We must start using our
traditional practice of rainwater harvesting (catching where it falls). Presently India
captures only 8% of its annual rainfall, which is the lowest in the world. About 80% of
the water that reaches household, leaves as waste, and pollutes our water bodies and
the environment. A huge potential is available in reusing and recycling this treated
wastewater, at least for non-potable purposes. Moreover, managing the water situation
should not be left to engineers only. It is the responsibility of all including economists,planners, hydrologists, communities, activists, and finally that of all the citizens. We must not sell dreams but work on realities.
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