Imagine a Sunday when you had a to-do list with stuff liking washing your clothes, watching your favorite old movies, having a hot shower, etc. but then there’s no water to wash your clothes or take a bath. Just imagine that there’s no electricity in your area to watch your favorite movie. Does that alarm you?
Well, this will not just be a fragment of our imagination but soon turn into a reality. We should all be concerned about the problem of water scarcity which is looming large over us. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), India received less than adequate amount of monsoon in the year 2018. Though the actual deficit last monsoon was barely 9%, the Post-Monsoon Rain (PMR) (also called the winter monsoons, October to December 2018) registered 44% deficit. And some places like Marathwada and Vidarbha had 84% and 88% deficit in rainfall.
What’s even more alarming is that our government and other parties fighting for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections are busy defaming each other over petty issues. Every day these politicians can be found in the headlines – but only for their vote bank politics. Instead of debating on the Rafale deal or changing names of cities, the government’s priority should be this ‘taken for granted’ situation of water scarcity that the country is facing currently. There’s no point of renaming cities when there are serious questions of human survival!
People, especially the urban lot, will not realize the intensity of this problem until they would actually face power outages – when their air-conditioners would stop working.
According to the NITI Aayog reports, this crisis is ‘only going to get worse’ in the coming years. It also warns that 21 cities are likely to run out of groundwater by 2020 despite the increasing demand.
Now that we, along with the government, know the perilous status of water levels in India, the focus should be on implementation of policies on drought relief, water usage, food security, and other preventive measures. What our government must be doing right now is the appointment of a commission to inquire into the matter and suggest solutions. But the authorities ignoring all the parched ponds, the sharded earth, drooping livestock, leaf-shedding trees, are busy in blame games, seemingly waiting for the dreadful hour when the country would actually drip into the hands of scarcity.
All these reports reveal that failure of rains in 2018 is so severe that it would not just remain an agrarian crisis but will lead to a national crisis – which will not only affect the rural population but will also grip the towns and the cities.
Addressing the intensity of such conditions, finding possible solutions for better water management and food security must become critical for the government – not for winning votes but for the survival of the people.