Shimla water crisis: Will Delhi be the next to have the same fate?

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India is reeling under severe water crisis, with many cities, including Delhi and Bangalore, facing scarcity, especially potable water, and maybe staring at a similar situation as Shimla

Delhi-NCR is witnessing acute scarcity of water past few weeks and has left its citizens parched. Despite efforts by Delhi Jal Board, Delhiites complained about little availability of water this time like previous years.

Not only Delhi, a report by World Resources Institute, says 54 per cent of India's total area is under high to extremely high water stress and groundwater levels are declining in 54 per cent of wells across India. Water scarcity or stress is defined as a situation when the availability is less than 1 million liters per capita per year.

Delhi depends on neighbouring states Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for water. It gets 60 per cent of its water from Haryana alone. Delhi's own water resources meet only 15% of the total demand.

Delhi Jal Board has said in a report that water levels at all its 20 monitoring stations have shown a steady decline past few years. Areas around Chhatarpur, Dwarka and the President's Estate are the worst hit. According to a Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) report, not a single region in Delhi has recorded a significant rise in groundwater level during the last two decades. Main reason: excessive and mindless exploitation.

According to the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) report, the national capital is heading towards a semi-critical or critical situation. Almost 90% of the city being categorised as under high water stress.

As per the report, 27% of the national capital territory's 1,483 sq km had groundwater at the level of 0-5 metres in 2010, but in 17 years this has shrunk to 11%.

In 2000, groundwater was available till 40 metres but at present water levels in 15% of Delhi have plunged below 50 metres or more. Another report has noted that 40% of the city's water is lost due to pipe leaks and thefts via unauthorized connections.

Considering India's water crisis problem, water quality alongwith water scarcity is a major problem. Reports say about 60% of districts face the problem of groundwater contamination or scarcity or both.

For some time now, India is reeling under a sustained water crisis and no solution seems to be in sight. Excessive demand coupled with mismanaged water resources, growing population, erratic weather patterns have led to some unsolved issues.

The UN has ranked India 120th of 122 countries for water quality, estimating that 70 per cent of the supply is contaminated, with high arsenic levels.

According to government data, between 1951 and 2011, water availability per person dropped 70 per cent. By 2050, it is expected to reduce to just 22% of the present availability.

Given India's population of 1.2 billion and volume of water usage of nearly 1,000 billion cubic metres in 2013, water crisis poses a threat to its economic development as well as its political stability. India should extensively invest in better water management. It must also be kept in mind that pan India water conservation projects will cost significantly, so sufficient budgetary allocations need to be made for water conservation.

China has invested $131 billion in 2017 alone towards large scale water conservation projects. In Brazil, the citizens have been actively encouraged by the government to ration water.
Unless such steps are taken to reverse the depletion and contamination of India's water resources, India's cities and villages may face a similar fate.