Impending Water Crises in Indian Cities

Every Summer we see fierce debates errupting in the media over how municipal corporations are unable to cope with the growing demand for more water which in turn is a natural consequence of the unchecked migration from the rural hinterland. So we have low pressure in the distribution networks, erratic timings and unscheduled dry days. Residents store water in over head tanks and other smaller containers to help tide over the fluctuating supplies. Online booster pumps though illegal are the norm in most middle class colonies while many tap the ground water through bore wells. Regular tanker supplies are resorted to when all else fails.

It seems everyone is trying very hard to solve this problem in their own way but the gradual downhill slide year on year is quite perceptible. Is India's population really so high that nothing much can be done about it anyway?

How much water do we need per person per day to lead normal healthy lives. The citizens of Europe manage quite nicely with a daily provision of 130 litres of water for each resident. May be we being a developing society can learn to live more frugally with a 100 litres ration. It is also easier to do the math with 100 litres so let us take this logic further. A person would need 36,500 litres or 36.5 cubic metres of water in a whole year. If the annual precipitation is 800 millimetres, the needs of one person would be met by the annual rain falling on an area of 45 square meters. One square Km of city area gets enough rain to take care of 22,000 citizens whereas average population density of our highly crowded cities is much less than that. So why don't Municipalities solve their water woes permanently by generating water by building rain harvesting structures?

There are no logical reasons for them to make honest attempts. The State and Central Governments build large water storage facilities like dams and barrages and the coveyance channels free of cost to the municipalities and deliver the raw water at their Treatment Plant doorsteps. Municipalities only pay for treating the raw water and then distributing it. Harvesting rain water would be much more expensive for them, unless the Central and State governments come forward and foot most of the bill. Can Private households and institutions do it instead?

Harvested water seeps into the ground and becomes common property for whoever is able to drill and recover it. Therefore private households will not do it voluntarily and large institutions find it easier to dig deeper or lobby and manouvre the rules to reserve some part of the municipal supplies for themselves.

So it is apparent that there is no real shortage of water in this blessed land of ours. The struggle is all about how to get one's need without paying for it. As with a lot of other civic amenities we are willing to suffer considerably as long as we don't have to go out of our way to enhance the quality of our lives.