Water is just one of those things that you take for granted as long as you have it, but the moment you run short, your whole life can come to a stop.
It is surprising to see how little we seem to care about a resource, the absence of which can literally bring an end to life as we know it. The manner in which we waste water makes dystopic representations of water wars shown in movies like ‘Mad Max’ a highly possible future.
And we seem to be taking a step closer to ‘doom’ each day. According to a report by IndiaSpend, India is facing the worst crisis in a decade, with a severe shortage likely to spread out throughout the country. Seeing the rate of population growth, the amount of pressure it puts on resources, and the measures being taken (and not taken) to save water, India could soon face drought-like conditions in most parts of the country.
This World Water Day, let’s take a look at the extreme water conditions we are facing:
Women carry water drawn from a handpump at the village of Kalakhetar in India’s western state of Rajasthan. Thousands of villages in Rajasthan are facing an acute shortage of water and animal feed with most sources of water having dried out in what is seen to be the worst drought in 100 years.
1. Accessibility is a major concern in rural India, and women are primarily burdened with the task of fetching water, and 17% have to walk over a kilometre to reach the closest clean water source.
Women in Bombay line up vessels to fill water from a pipe as the delay in the monsoon has resulted in an acute shortage of water. The water supply in the city comes from nearby lakes which depend mainly on the four-month monsoon rains between June and September.
2. While some official data states that 86% households in India have access to drinking water, the reality is far from it. These figures count hand pumps and tube wells as sources of drinking water, whereas the quality of water from these sources is a carrier for many diseases. According to the 2011 Census, only 2/3rd of homes have no facility for drinking water.
A man looks on as he collects items thrown by devotees as religious offerings next to idols of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, after the idols were immersed on Sunday, in the waters of the Yamuna river in New Delhi, India. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee
3. Owing to these numbers, India now has the largest number of people in the world who are living without safe water.
A boy takes bath from a water tap near a polluted water channel during early morning in Kolkata, India. Friday marks the annual World Environment Day. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri
4. The lack of clean drinking water has had a major impact on health. Of the 3,15,000 people dying globally because of diarrheal diseases, 45% are from India.
Fishermen search for offerings thrown in by worshippers in the polluted waters of the river Sabarmati in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. In recent years, the religious festivals and customs in India have come under increasing scrutiny as public awareness of environmental issues grows. REUTERS/Amit Dave
5. Currently, there are 100 million people in India who live in places with polluted water.
A villager fills a bucket with dead fish from the polluted waters of a lake at Matado village, about 35 km (22 miles) west from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. Thousands of dead fish were found floating on the lake on Saturday due to depletion of oxygen and polluted waters coming in from the near-by factories, village head said. REUTERS/Amit Dave
6. A recent report by the Central Pollution Control Board states that at least 650 towns and cities lie along the banks of polluted rivers, which severely affects the quality of groundwater in these places.
Slum dwellers collect drinking water from a submerged hand-pump after heavy rains in the northern Indian city of Allahabad. REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash
7. More than half of India’s groundwater is contaminated, with 276 districts having high levels of fluoride, and 387 districts with extreme levels of nitrate, and high arsenic in 86 districts.
Residents with their empty containers crowd around a municipal tanker to fetch water in New Delhi. The Indian army has taken control of a canal that supplies three-fifths of Delhi’s water, the state’s chief minister said on Monday, raising hope that a water crisis in the metropolis of more than 20 million people can be averted. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee
8. The availability of water per person (annual per capita availability) has been on the decline since 1947. From 6042 cubic metres, it has gone down to 1545 cubic metres in 2011.
A girl carries a pitcher after filling it with drinking water from a “virda”, a small opening made by villagers manually to collect water, from the dried-up Banas river at Sukhpur village, north of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. At least 30 virdas have been dug up by villagers in the river. Villagers walk two and a half kilometres to draw drinking water from them, and they say it takes 30-40 minutes to fill a five-litre jar. Occasionally the villagers get their supply of drinking water from municipal tankers but most of the time they depend on the virdas before the monsoon arrives in the region. This year, the country has forecast a normal monsoon. REUTERS/Amit Dave
9. There is not enough water to irrigate over 74% of the farmland in India, and this shortage is only growing. With unreliable monsoon, this is likely to create a massive food shortage in the country.
Children from the village of Kankroli look for shells in the dried out bed of the Rajsamand lake near Udaipur in India’s drought-hit state of Rajasthan. The lake has dried up for the first time in living memory. Thousands of villages in Rajasthan are facing an acute shortage of water and animal feed with most sources of water having dried out in what is seen to be the worst drought in 100 years.
10. Going by current trends, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortage by 2025. Conflicts over water would cost us dearly.
