India's Impending Water Crisis

India is potentially facing a severe water crisis this summer due to significant reductions in snowfall on the Himalayan-Hindu Kush range, marking a 23-year low for three consecutive years.

Impact on River Systems

• Snow Persistence: Currently 24% below normal, indicating lower water levels in major river systems such as the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Indus.
• Consequences: Affects irrigation, power generation, and water access for Indians.
• Groundwater Dependency: Increased reliance due to depleting river flows, but groundwater resources are also rapidly depleting.

Water Management Challenges

• NITI Aayog Report: Nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress.
• Climate Change: Likely to exacerbate water scarcity issues.
• Policy Reevaluation: Need for a water-management template that balances population needs without depleting reserves.

Issues with Current Policies

• Green Revolution Legacies: Promoted water-intensive crops like paddy and sugar, leading to dangerously low water tables.
• Groundwater Depletion: 450 cubic kilometers lost in northern India between 2002 and 2021.
• Water Pollution: Industrial and agricultural effluents polluting rivers and water bodies.

Solutions and Initiatives

• Infrastructure Projects: Big dams (e.g., Sardar Sarovar) and pipe-building programmes (e.g., Har Ghar Nal Yojana) aim to improve access.
• Water Pricing: Align pricing with scarcity value to control usage, similar to European practices.
• Paddy Cultivation: De-incentivize in stressed northern regions.
• Effluent Discharge: Implement tougher deterrent regimes against industrial discharge into rivers.
• Urban Planning: Address concretization of natural rechargers like lakes and water bodies.

Community-Based Solutions

• Water Harvesting Projects: Mandatory in new constructions, significantly recharge groundwater.
• Check Dams: Aquifer-recharging check dams in rural and semi-rural areas, effective in drought-prone regions like Bundelkhand.
• Community Participation: Encourages ground-up participatory water conservation.