Policy corrections vital
Source: By T C A Ranganathan: Deccan Herald
The recent government pronouncement to observe Ambedkar Jayanti as 'Water Day' is interesting, coming as it does against the backdrop of the recent Karnataka-Tamil Nadu spat over Cauvery water sharing and the ongoing Punjab-Haryana-Delhi imbroglio over Sutlej waters. Ambedkar was not only the architect of the Indian constitution but was also responsible for an all India policy on managing water resources. Water Day observance was first formally proposed as Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The UN and its member-nations devote this day to promote concrete activities within their countries regarding the world's water resources.
India's problems regarding water availability are not new. Though India receives above average rainfall, it is albeit faced with a distributional imbalance. It faces a challenge of decreasing per capita availability of water, due to population growth and rising usage. While the challenges regarding water - both safe drinking water in urban and rural areas as also ensuring adequate supply for agriculture - have consistently engaged governmental attention, the achievement has been tepid.
The pathetic states of municipal water supply in urban areas are known to everyone as also the sheer non-availability of safe drinking water in most rural areas. Despite India having the world's largest irrigation system, monsoon has been its national anxiety. The NDA government had announced, on inception, that radical improvements would be secured on this front. Admittedly, several additional steps were taken in the current year's budget for tackling water issues by allocating a 20% increase over previous allocations, as also an ambitious MNREGA-supported programme for creating/restoring over three million rural water harvesting and water body systems.
A dispassionate inter-country peer review indicates that the concern attached to water usage patterns and conservation has so far remained rhetorical. It may be argued that in the case of water, unlike other resources, a simple inter-country comparison may misguide, since water usage depends on a host of other variables such as climate and cultural practices, size of agriculture, crop composition, irrigation and degree of urbanisation.
A comparative examination of inter-temporal usage behaviour is thus possibly a better guide. To illustrate, a simplistic inter country comparison using the US and China, drawn from data contained in Aquastat, a database maintained by the Food and Agriculture Organisation is presented. Both are large countries with considerable geographical heterogeneity. The US is often represented to be a country most lavish in consumption behaviour. China is often considered to be careless in the use of natural resources in pursuit of growth.
The data for water usage is measured in cubic kilometres for all countries. The water consumption per year in India was 500 units in 1990 and has since risen to 761 or by over 50%. The comparative China figures are 500/608 reflecting a lower growth of 20%. The US figures are 559/485 respectively, reflecting an absolute decline. What underlies this aberrant Indian behaviour? This aspect can be examined using sectoral consumption data for agriculture, industry and municipal centres. The same database indicates that the industrial use of water has a very small share, at 2.3%, in India and has also fallen from the 3% share earlier. Incidentally, China and USA have much higher industrial usage at above 25%. Hence, there is need to examine the Indian municipal and agricultural usage practices.
In the municipal use of water, Indian usage grew from 25 to 56 units. The Chinese consumption also doubled to 75 water units. It can’t therefore be said that urban Indian behaviour is wayward. However, in the same period, municipal waste water 'treated' in India rose from 0.91 to 4.41 units. While China, starting from an equally poor base, now has municipal waste water treatment of 49.3 units. The US has higher figures of usage and treatment throughout. Both these countries have much higher per capita availability of water. It can therefore be inferred that part of the Indian water stress is due to inadequate importance given by authorities to water recycling.
Agri use
In agriculture, while the use of water in India went up from 460 to 688 units or about 50% in this reference period, China's usage fell in absolute terms from 419 to 392 units. In the US, the usage of water in agriculture also fell from 197 to 175 units in the same period.
The CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for physical production, in India, is estimated at about 2.2%. This is lower than Chinese rates. This suggests that there are serious concerns in agriculture that demand attention. It could be that crop selection is shifting to water hungry crops because procurement support price signals are sent out without regard to their implications on water consumption (despite it being a scarce resource).
It is also possible that water intensity has ceased to be important at the farm level despite water shortages because of 'free or cheap' water and power being granted by various states to secure short-term electoral popularity. It is, however, also true that sharp policy corrections are required to prevent water fights amongst various states and 'water riots'. The predictions regarding future demand versus availability conditions in the website of the Central Water Commission are deeply disturbing. However, and undoubtedly, these are also politically difficult areas of reform.
At the same time, we are now living in the 'post demonetisation' era in which the government has shown its willingness to brave wide-ranging stress if this can lead to a better future for the country. Permitting water inefficiency or a 'free ride' in a water stressed society is morally akin to permitting black money in a poverty inflicted country.
So, perhaps the government's announcement celebrating Ambedkar jayanti as 'water day' may be taken as a hint that effective and rapid ground-based reforms on water management are on their way. After all, Ambedkar is universally recognised to be one leader who was undaunted by vested interests or rigid adherence to obsolete traditions, in his visualisation of a modern society.
