Among 27 Asian cities with population of over 10 lakh, Chennai and Delhi were ranked as the worst performing metropolitan cities in terms of water availability per day, while Mumbai was ranked as second worst performer and Kolkata fourth
India is expected to experience severe water stress by 2020 with the per capita availability of water projected to be less than 1,000 cubic metres. The water scenario in the country is a matter of grave concern, as 85 per cent of water is used for agriculture, 10 per cent for industry and five per cent for domestic use, according to a paper presented at a national symposium in Coimbatore.
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Being a developing nation with a large population on the negative side of the poverty line, economic water scarcity (limited access to fresh water due to lower affordability) assumed equal, if not, greater importance as that of physical water scarcity, it said.
Quoting a World Bank study, it said of the 27 Asian cities with population of over 10 lakh, Chennai and Delhi were ranked as the worst performing metropolitan cities in terms of water availability per day, while Mumbai was ranked as second worst performer and Kolkata fourth.
Severe water shortage had already led to a growing number of conflicts across the country, with 90 per cent of India's territory served by inter-state rivers. The row over river Cauvery between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Godavari between Maharashtra and Karnataka, Narmada between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are some of the conflicts, the paper said.
The conflicts are being bitterly fought at all levels, imposing very high economic environmental costs, the paper said. Climate change projections showed India's water problems were only likely to worsen and with more rain expected to fall in fewer days and the rapid melting of glaciers, especially in the Western Himalayas, India would need to gear up to tackle increasing incidence of droughts and floods, it said. Global fresh water supplies were continuously stressed by rising demands from growing population and its ever-increasing needs for hygiene, sanitation, food and industrial needs. While the world's population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold and within next 50 years, the world population would increase by another 40 to 50 per cent, it claimed.
On water facts, the paper said that a billion people in the world do not have access to safe water, which was roughly one sixth of the world's population. About 1.8 million people die every year as a result of diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation, which amounted to around 5,000 deaths a day. The simple act of washing hands with soap and water can reduce diarrhoeal cases by over 40 per cent since water-related disease was the second biggest killer of children worldwide, after acute respiratory infections like tuberculosis, it said.
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