Why India faces water crisis, what govts can do: An IPCC expert explains

Almost 4 billion people on Earth experience sever water crisis for at least one month every yearWhat are India’s water challenges?What is the reason for water crises in urban India?Is India’s water crisis caused only by climate change?How can policymakers help mitigate effects of climate change?Aditi Mukherjee, water expert associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC’s reports for policymakers, explainsAlmost 4 billion people around the world experience severe water crisis for at least one month every year due to climatic and non-climatic factors. So many people live under drought conditions. While there’s too little water in some places, there’s too much in other areas. Since the 1950s, heavy rainfall has increased substantially. It’s no longer rare to hear of severe floods due to climate change. Since the 1970s, 44 per cent of all disaster events have been due to floods. Water-related risks will rise with every degree of global warming. Aditi Mukherji, who is a Principal Researcher at the International Water Management Institute, talks to The Times of India about the water challenges of the future. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this year published its Working Group reports for policy-makers. The IPCC’s report assesses the science related to climate change and is written by thousands of scientists. Aditi has been deeply involved in bringing out the report as she has worked as the Coordinating Lead Author of the Water chapter in Working Group II. She specialises on groundwater governance and climate change adaptation and community management of water resources. Water is central to climate change strategies. The United Nations defines water security as having sustainable access to enough water to support people, well-being, livelihoods, and health without jeopardising ecosystems. Aditi, you are the Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group Two of the IPCC’s report. What does the report say about the water crisis? What kind of water crisis there is in the world, specifically in India? Water is absolutely central to any climate change discourse. So what our report is showing is precisely that all the components of the water cycle, be it precipitation, be it snowfall, all of those components are changing. And those are immensely affecting people's lives. For example, one of the things that have come across is the incidence of extreme precipitation. We are now seeing much more extreme precipitation, which means a lot of rain falling at one time happening now than it used to happen 50 years ago. Apart from that, we are in South Asia where our Himalayas are extremely important for all our water resources and we are seeing that the last 100 years and within that actually the last two decades have been unprecedented in terms of how our glaciers have melted, which is also a direct impact of global warming and temperature rise. Apart from that, there are various other impacts on water be it groundwater beat, coastal areas where there is salign water. There are impacts in urban areas and our chapter in the entire report actually highlights the water-related impacts of climate change, of which two are extremely important, floods and drought. One very important thing to remember is that the climate crisis is happening now also, right now we are 1.1 degrees above the pre-industrial temperature level, so it's not that a climate change will happen in the future. We are already 1.1 degrees warmer than our ancestors were 150 years ago. So climate change has already happened. And yes, climate change has affected water in all these aspects. But water crisis is not only because of climate change, it’s also because of many other policies in the urban areas. For example, the main reason for the water crisis and the urban floods as you see is because of the way we are building our infrastructure. Building our you know houses and whatever on water bodies we are not preserving the catchment area where the rain actually falls and recharges the groundwater. So a lot of the water crisis is also actually bad governance, and poor management and climate change are making those existing mistakes even worse and exacerbating the water crisis. Tell me how the problem affects people's lives and can you give us a glimpse of the water crisis in urban India? See, people who are most affected are those who are most directly dependent on nature for their livelihoods. So farmers in India will tell you how rainfall has become unpredictable and how there are no longer gaps between two rainfall events. I work with farmers and in the rainy season, Kharif season, irrigation in much of eastern India where I am based was unheard of. Nobody had to irrigate their crops during the rainy season because the rain was plentiful. Now, farmers are using diesel and other kinds of pumps to even irrigate in the rainy season because rains have become just so unpredictable. In urban India, for instance, climate change, but as well as poor management comes to the fore in form of, say, domestic water prices. We would find even in very well off areas in Delhi, a few years ago — I don't know exactly what's happening now — but then there would be long hours of water cut when you simply won't have water and those are all the ways in which climate change is kind of making the water crisis worse. The other issue in the urban water crisis is around how many of our wetlands are being encroached upon, and new buildings are being constructed. So when you have a series of extreme rainfall events and very heavy precipitation, the rain has no way to go out, and that's when very devastating urban floods are happening. For example, the floods in Chennai a couple of years ago. So it's basically a combination of climate change as well as poor land-use policies in the context of urban areas. Groundwater uses are all very weird and very distorted. In places where we shouldn't be using groundwater, we are using a lot of it and in places where we should be using more groundwater we are not using enough, so I think a lot of the groundwater crisis is really a policy crisis. The good news though, is that groundwater can be a very resilient resource to climate change. Unlike surface water, which reacts very very quickly to climate change, groundwater is comparatively more resilient. So I think we should manage groundwater much more judiciously to provide resilience in the long run. We get to hear of streams drying up and glaciers melting in the Himalayan regions. Can you tell us something about that? So these are actually two very good examples. One is a 100 per cent climate change cost, melting of glaciers. Glaciers are melting simply because the global temperatures are rising. As I said, we are currently in a 1.1 degree world and when it goes to upper elevations, the warming is actually even more intense. So glacier melting is a clear indication of climate change and these are kind of unprecedented. You have to also remember glaciers take centuries, if not millennia to accumulate and become what they are, and they are melting in in a matter of decades. So that's a huge concern and that could have a huge impact on our water resources in the future. When it comes to springs, I think it's more weeks. Springs are drying partly because of climate change. Springs are also dying because of the poor choices we are making as a nation. For example, this sport of road construction in the mountains, you know, road construction without properly understanding the geology, is drying up springs. Similarly, hydropower construction without understanding the underlying rock structure and all are drying up springs. Plus, of course, climate change and changing rainfall regimes are also contributing to that. What do you have to say about water quality issues? Water quality issues, we don't talk enough about it. But again, if you would look at the UN definition of water security, it not only happens when we have adequate water but adequate water of good quality. And in India, the water quality issue comes in various ways. For one, we have some natural issues around water quality, which is called geo-genic water quality. So, there are parts of India — for example, in eastern India — where there is a lot of arsenic in groundwater naturally. So, you have to figure out then which arsenic-free layers and use those water. Then in central hard-rock areas, you have naturally occurring fluoride, which also has very many health impacts. So those are some of the geo-genic causes of water pollution. But the larger cause of water pollution remains point and non-point sources of pollution. For example, a lot of use of fertilisers in agriculture causes a lot of nitrates to flow into our water and then point sources are effluents from the industries being released into the rivers without any further treatment. So water quality is what I think of as a major issue, a huge issue in India. And The funny thing is that those who can afford it come to drinking water quality. For instance, those of us who can afford almost all of us have installed RO plants and all of that in our house. And the ones who cannot afford are the ones who are relying only on municipal supplies. So if there is also a huge quality issue in water quality in India? What challenges does India face in terms of managing the water crisis? It's a challenge that is more of a governance failure. Every year we find that we know the flood season will come when all of us are busy analysing what caused floods, but then not enough action takes place. And then this is again followed by another cycle of flood and we almost forget all the lessons that the flood gave us. And we end up making the same mistake. So, it's a huge challenge, and there are no silver bullets. It's not as if I can tell you, or anybody can tell you that do this and we will solve India's problems. I think what we have to talk about here are some basic code principles of how to solve those problems and those core principles should include things like managing water based on the availability of water. So, we should grow crops that are suited to those agric-logical regions. You know, some regions are naturally arid, so grow crops that are suitable for those arid regions. In the urban areas, for instance, do not build your houses on a wetland or do not deforest, you know catchment areas, which are basically the main source of recharge for your city. I think following those basic principles, understanding the physical laws of water, that also understanding that the lack of water affects the poor and the marginal more than everybody else. I think it will help policymakers come up with certain principles for better water management. Where does India stand in making mitigation efforts? One of the ways of mitigation is being discussed is through things like afforestation and reforestation. When you have any plant forests, basically forests absorb carbon, so forests are a very good source of carbon dioxide removal. One of the ways in which the IPCC report says that we can mitigate, obviously the other mitigation ones are around solar energy. Renewable energy, etc. So water is important even in mitigation because with aforestation you have to be careful where you are planting your forest. If you're planting your forest in areas that are already added, you are just causing more loss of water through evaporation and other such things. And you can also then when you're deploying, say renewable energy for mitigation, then can we for India, for instance, has almost 20 million agricultural water pumps? And those pumps either use grid electricity, which is largely cold, or they use diesel pumps. Now when you are thinking of mitigation, how do you also think of changing solar irrigation for farmers. So that at least they're using groundwater with renewable energy. While mitigation is often thought of as being separate from water, I would like to say that water needs to also play an important part in mitigation. Audio production: Basant Singhal Note: The podcast was recorded on Aug 13, 2022