Water stress is real so are solutions

Water stress is real so are solutions

Floods in different parts of the country must not divert policy attention from the fact that India now ranks a lowly 120 among 122 nations on the Water Quality Index, given widespread contamination, and that 600 million people face high-to-extreme water stress across states. The recent online Times Water Summit 2020, Odisha, brought together policymakers, experts and analysts to gauge the situation and streamline policy action to effectively manage the water crisis.

Now, there seems no change in the quantum of rainfall nationwide, as in Odisha, but variability of rainfall is rising, which means intensive precipitation over fewer days. And the resultant downpours lead to heavy run-offs, and reduced natural recharge of aquifers. Hence the pressing need to boost water harvesting, raise efficiency in usage and modernise infrastructure.

Improved irrigation facilities have made Odisha’s Kalahandi district, once infamous for hunger, the second-largest paddy-growing region in the state. The effort now is to grow more vegetables and millets, and rationalise water use with drip irrigation systems. Odisha has built over 15,000 check-dams in the last decade to better conserve post-monsoon flows. The use of technology, common sense and administrative purpose has transformed a hunger basket into a thriving food production centre. That is most gratifying and also an example for the rest of the country.

The Centre’s initiative to test soil and calibrate water and fertiliser use comes up against its policies on subsidy, of power for groundwater extraction and canal irrigation, and support prices. Water pricing for industrial use, whether in paint shops or in coal washeries, encourages waste. Economic policies must align with newly opened-up technological solutions, to combat water stress.