Before the rains came this year, the urban elite wrung their hands in despair – like they do every year – about the ongoing water shortage. Thankfully, in the real world, less privileged Indians whose lives and livelihoods hinge on access to water are redesigning their lives around reduced use of water. Azera Parveen Rahman’s fact filled article is an inspirational long read at a time when India’s leaders have chosen to keep mum on this important subject. Ms Rahman writes: “At the peak of this year’s summer, large parts of the country, including the capital city of Delhi, faced acute water shortage. Making a water budget, rainwater harvesting, making changes in agriculture–even aquifer management–have, however, helped villages…slowly become more self-sufficient in terms of water and resilient to the changing climatic conditions.”
Ms Rahman gives several examples of how villages in various parts of India have taken well thought through initiatives to deal with the situation. Here are a couple of examples from her article: “In April this year, the women of Mhaswandi village in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, about 93 km from the district headquarters, approached the Gram Panchayat to pass a decision that the people of the village would use tap water on alternate days. “This was so that we could conserve enough water for the dry months,” said 45-year-old Chaaya Rajaram Bodke.
Mhaswandi received very little rainfall last year, she said, dipping the water level of the three lakes which are the main source of water for the village. Hence, the women decided not to take any chances this year. By the first week of June, however, the villagers stopped the alternate-day arrangement. “We received 40 mm rainfall last week,” Bodke told IndiaSpend on June 10. “As per the water budget of our village, we will be fine.”…
In Kolegaon village in the Jalna district, farmer Bhagwat Ramrao Gavande knows exactly how much rainfall their village received in the previous week. This calibration is important, he said, because it helps the community realise that by conserving this rainwater, and by conserving through other means such as “by switching to crops that are not water-guzzlers”, they will not face water scarcity, even in the dry months. “Until a few years back, the wells of our village would have water for about six-eight months and in the rest of the hot months, they would become dry,” he said. “Now that is no longer the case.””
However, inspite of these initiatives, the supply-demand gap for water seems to be widening each year: “Parts of Jalna district fall in the Assured Rainfall Zone. Yet in recent years, water scarcity and drought-like conditions in the summer months have become frequent in this area. According to a report by WOTR, Kolegaon received only 458 mm of rainfall in the five-year period between 2017-2021. This is about 27% less than the average of 630-640 mm in the region, said Eshwer Kale of WOTR. [WOTR is Watershed Organisation Trust, a non-profit organization based in Pune.]
India has 18% of the world population but only 4% of renewable water sources and 2.4% of land area. “At the same time, India is one of the largest groundwater users in the world,” said Kale
According to the Central Ground Water Board, India’s groundwater extraction for all uses–irrigation, industrial and domestic use–stands at 59.26% of the annual extractable groundwater resource in 2023, a marginal improvement from 60.08% in 2022. Even then, India remains the largest groundwater extractor in the world. “Hence water sources in India are under severe stress. Added to this are erratic weather patterns and climatic changes. Traditional knowledge alone is unable to cope with these challenges and simply increasing water availability for people in the dry regions is not a sustainable solution,” Kale said.”
Sooner rather than later therefore the scale of this crisis will require mission mode intervention. Ms Rahman’s article points towards the sorts of solutions that could be potentially implemented on a mass scale: “Talking about the changes in his village, Gavande said that until about five years back, people in his village grew only cotton and maize, both of which require a lot of water. “Usually, we would grow a single crop, mostly cotton. But then we were told that if we switched to a crop that requires less water, like soybean, it would be more beneficial to us,” he said.
They were also told about the benefits of drip irrigation. “Cotton grown on 2.5 acres of land requires 10 million litres of water, but with drip irrigation it requires 6.5 million litres,” Gavande said. “It took some time for people to get convinced of these changes but now, 313 acres of 458 acres of agricultural land in our village is under drip irrigation. Cotton production has gone down and soybean has increased. We are also growing more crops instead of just one.” On his four-acre land, for instance, Gavande grows cotton, maize, soybean and chilli.”
If you want to read our other published material, please visit https://marcellus.in/blog/
Note: The above material is neither investment research, nor financial advice. Marcellus does not seek payment for or business from this publication in any shape or form. The information provided is intended for educational purposes only. Marcellus Investment Managers is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is also an FME (Non-Retail) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) as a provider of Portfolio Management Services. Additionally, Marcellus is also registered with US Securities and Exchange Commission (“US SEC”) as an Investment Advisor.
