Preparing India for water stress, climate resilience
Why in News?
As the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts a hotter summer and longer heat waves from April to June, India must also prepare for water stress. The country must shift from panic reactions to understanding and responding to chronic risks rather than focusing on temporary disaster relief. This Earth Day (April 22) should be a wake-up call.
India's water resources and vulnerability:
- India houses 18% of the world’s population on 2.4% of the earth’s surface area and has just 4% of global freshwater resources.
- Nearly half of its rivers are polluted, and 150 of its primary reservoirs are currently at just 38% of their total live storage capacity.
- India is the largest user of groundwater in the world, and three-quarters of its districts are hotspots for extreme climate events.
- Against this backdrop, India has invested heavily in disaster preparedness, but the nature of climatic shocks will continue to change.
- There will be sudden shocks (heavy rainfall, rapid declines in water availability) and slow-onset but periodic stresses (reduced water retention in soils, changes in rainfall trend lines).
- Seasonal disaster preparedness and responses are no longer sufficient to tackle climate risks.
Shift from reactive to proactive approach:
- The challenge is that we are programmed to consider acute stresses (such as heat, water, or extreme weather) temporary and often handle them as disaster relief.
- We must move from panic reactions when disaster strikes (like the water crisis in Bengaluru) to understand and respond to the chronic nature of risks we face.
- Moreover, climate action cannot be left to a few sectors or businesses. Nor can environmental sustainability be reduced to sapling plantation drives over a few days.
- This Earth Day (April 22) is a crucial reminder that the climate is the economy now, and the economic production frontier will expand or shrink depending on how we understand the intersections between land, food, energy and water.
Interconnectedness of water with economy -
Water in agriculture:
- Precipitation is the primary source of soil moisture, water stored in vegetation (green water), and water available in rivers and aquifers (blue water).
- Both blue and green water impact the food we grow — irrigating crops, influencing harvests, and being critical to the economy.
- The agriculture sector that employs the most is increasingly climate-vulnerable.
- The India Employment Report 2024 shows that agriculture still employs around 45% of the population and absorbs most of the country’s labour force.
- A Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) study showed that monsoon rainfall is changing patterns in India, with 55% of ‘tehsils’ or sub-districts seeing a significant increase of more than 10% in southwest monsoon rainfall in the last decade, compared to the previous three.
- The increased rainfall frequently comes from short-duration, heavy rain, which affects crop sowing, irrigation, and harvesting. Making the agricultural sector more resilient to climate and water stresses matters for jobs, growth, and sustainability.
Water in clean energy transition:
- Water is also a key component of the world’s clean energy transition.
- Green hydrogen, seen as a crucial pillar for decarbonising industry and long-distance transport sectors, is produced using water and electricity sourced from renewables.
- Pumped storage hydropower—which acts as a natural battery and is essential to balancing the power grid load—is an important component of a clean but reliable power system.
Climate crisis and hydrometeorological disasters:
- The climate crisis has an impact on hydrometeorological disasters.
- According to the UN World Water Development Report 2020, almost 75% of natural disasters in the last two decades were related to water.
- According to CEEW analysis, between 1970 and 2019, the number of flood-associated events (such as landslides, thunderstorms and cloud bursts) increased by up to 20 times in India.
- According to a 2023 study, freshwater - one of the nine planetary boundaries, has been transgressed.
Key strategies for ensuring water security -
Integrated water governance:
- India's water governance policies often overlook the interplay between water, food, and energy systems. However, CEEW and International Water Management Institute (IWMI) analysis shows that although India has adopted several policies, most do not consider this nexus during planning or implementation.
- For instance, scaling up green hydrogen doesn't always consider water availability. Additionally, analysing the impact of solar irrigation pumps on groundwater levels is crucial for optimal deployment.
- Policies should incorporate the food-land-water nexus through localised evidence and community engagement.
Judicious water use and reuse:
- India needs to prioritise the efficient use of blue and green water through water accounting and reuse.
- The National Water Mission aims to increase water use efficiency by 20% by 2025, while the Atal Mission on Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0 aims to reduce non-revenue water, which is lost before it reaches the end user in urban local bodies to less than 20%.
- However, these goals lack a baseline set using water accounting principles to quantify the 20% change in freshwater use.
- For instance, in the absence of water use data for the reference year, it is difficult to quantify the potential water saving in one sector, such as agriculture, that can then be diverted to other sectors, such as industries or domestic purposes, which will drive India’s water demand.
- Water accounting is essential for promoting water use efficiency and creating incentives for investments in treated wastewater reuse.
Financial commitments and Market innovations:
- India's climate action has primarily focused on industrial, energy, and transport sectors, but financial commitments for climate change adaptation in the water and agriculture sectors are still relatively small.
- In 2019-20, per capita annual spending on climate change mitigation was about ₹2,200, while for adaptation, it was only ₹260.
- More funding is needed for adaptation-specific interventions like strengthening wastewater management, promoting climate-resilient agricultural practices (micro irrigation and crop diversification), and scaling up desalination plants as an alternative water source for thermal plants and green hydrogen production.
- Market innovations like India's Green Credit Programme could partially bridge the adaptation funding gap by encouraging investment in wastewater treatment, desalination plants, and agricultural extension services.
- Considering the investments in India under Corporate Social Responsibility (between 2014-15 and 2020-21), there is a potential to leverage about ₹12,000 crore worth of investments annually.
Conclusion:
The connection between water and the economy is complex and multifaceted. India's efforts to ensure water supply, food security, and clean energy transition will impact its economy and provide lessons for other water-stressed developing countries. It is possible to make a start by pursuing more coherence in water, energy and climate policies, creating data-driven baselines to increase water savings, and enabling new financial instruments and markets for adaptation investments. A water-secure economy is the first step towards a climate-resilient one.
Mains PYQ:
Q. Suggest measures to improve water storage and irrigation system to make its judicious use under depleting scenario. (UPSC 2020)
Q. India is well endowed with fresh water resources. Critically examine why it still suffers from water scarcity. (UPSC 2015)
