Dry Facts

We have had an early onset of summer this year, and after two years of bad monsoons, the water crisis has become acute in all parts of the country. The Marathwada region of Maharashtra is experiencing severe drought, and so are Telangana, large parts of Rajasthan and Odisha, among others. Even some parts of the country, which are technically not under the grip of drought, are facing severe water shortage. A recent newspaper report says that some of Mumbai's posh apartment complexes depend on water tankers for their daily supply. Water rationing has become the norm in many parts of the country, and factories in some of the worst-affected areas have had to close down or at least work in only one shift as they do not get the water they require. The Mumbai High Court recently passed an order rationing water supplies to factories in Latur region. And there are reports every day of villagers walking several kilometres daily just to collect a pot of water.

Over the years, the per capita availability of water in India has gone down drastically. In 1951, it was 5,177 cubic metre per person. By 2011, it was down to 1,545 cubic metre, which is below the stress level of 1,700 cubic metre. And it is going down further every year. By 2050, India could well reach the water scarcity level of 1,000 cubic metre.

Some of the water shortage can be explained by an increasing population, higher level of industrial activity, and more areas being brought under cultivation. But there are other reasons as well. These include the rampant exploitation of groundwater resources, immense amount of water being wasted by farmers and factory owners and even domestic consumers. And finally, the inability to store water properly or recharge our groundwater levels even when there are good rains across the country.

They all boil down to one main issue. No one actually calculates the cost of water in the country. Not the Central government, not the state governments and certainly not consumers, whether they are domestic, agricultural or industrial. As a result, prices paid by everyone for the water being used - if they are paid at all - are very low, and certainly far below the cost of extracting and supplying the water. Illegal exploitation across the country is also rampant.

The Central and state governments need to wake up to the fact that water is a depleting resource and its shortage can hit the country hard, slowing down our growth rates and creating widespread conflict between states, and between consumers of different categories.

Our cover story (page 46), anchored by Senior Assistant Editor Sarika Malhotra and with reporting from Senior Associate Editor Mahesh Nayak in Maharashtra, Associate Editor E. Kumar Sharma in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and Deputy Editor Venkatesha Babu in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, looks at the economics of water and why we are hurtling towards a huge crisis.

My view is that unless the government realises that water is as important as something like, say, power and sanitation, nothing much will be solved. And also, the government needs to realise that water is not a free resource - it comes at a cost and its shortage can have severe economic implications.

Meanwhile, water is not the only thing in short supply these days. Read the very interesting story by Senior Assistant Editor Sumant Banerji on how a 27-per cent shortage of drivers in the trucking industry is hitting its operations hard (page 78).