Drinking Water - NOW and the FUTURE

As a building block of the essential elements required for sustaining life, water is indispensable for a healthy, progressive and sustainable civilisation. Its scarcity can adversely affect a country's social stability, hinder its economic prosperity, and disrupt its ecology and ecosystems. Goal 6 of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals specifically aims to ensure access to water and sanitation for all. While nearly 70% of earth is covered by water, only 3% of it is fresh water. However, only one per cent of the earth's water is accessible or potable for us as 2 per cent is found in glaciers and icebergs.

Water woes

In India, the constitutional right to access to clean drinking water can be drawn from the right to food, the right to clean environment and the right to health, all of which have been protected under the broad heading of the fundamental RIGHT TO LIFE, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. India is home to 17 per cent of the world's population, but it has only 4 per cent of the world's freshwater resources and managing these disproportionately small resources for a huge population is an extremely challenging task.

The scarcity of water in India can be attributed to the fact that approximately 820 million people of India - living in 12 river basins across the country have per capita water availability close to or lower than 1,000 cum - the official threshold for water scarcity as per the Falkenmark Index. About 50% of rural households in India do not have individual piped water supply and 163 million live without access to clean water close to their homes. Adding to this, about 70% of India's surface water is contaminated, and average per capita water availability (which is already low enough to be categorised as stressed), is expected to reduce further to 1,341 cum by 2025 and 1,140 cum by 2050, close to the water scarcity threshold. Estimates suggest that ~Rs 20 lakh crores in investments are required to bridge the expected water supply gap by 2030. A report by NITI AAYOG suggests that under business-as-usual, 6% of GDP will be lost by 2050 due to the impending water crisis and the status of water availability will deteriorate rapidly. Best estimates indicate that India's water demand will exceed supply by a factor of two by 2030, with severe water scarcity on the horizon for millions.

The annual utilisable water resources in the country are 690 BCM from surface sources and 447 BCM from groundwater. Despite possessing surface water resources, India is highly dependent on groundwater resources for day-to-day survival. The per capita water storage capacity in India is about 209 cum which is meagre in comparison to per capita storage capacities in countries like Australia (3,223 cum), Brazil (2,632 cum), USA (2,193 cum), and China (416 cum).

Central Groundwater Board (CGWB) suggests that sustainable development and efficient management of this scarce resource has become a challenge in India. Increasing population, growing urbanisation and rapid industrialisation combined with the need for raising agricultural production generates competing demands for water. Ground water has steadily emerged as the backbone of India's agriculture and drinking water security. Contribution of ground water is up to 62% in irrigation, 85% in rural water supply and 50% in urban water supply. Ground water is an annually replenishable resource, but its availability is non-uniform in space and time. Ground water available in the zones where water level fluctuates is replenished annually with rainfall being the dominant contributor.

A closer look at the cropping patterns in the Indian states reveals a frightening inefficiency and sub-optimal planning that is causing most water-related problems, including depletion of the ground water tables at an alarming rate. The scarcity of water resources could manifest many cascading effects including desertification, risk to biodiversity, industry, energy sector and risk of exceeding the carrying capacity of urban hubs. It thus becomes absolutely necessary for the citizens, the governments, the not-for-profit organisations and the multilateral organisations like the World Bank Group to join hands for developing an ecosystem of efficient water supply, judicious water usage, wastewater treatment for re-use, ground water recharge through water conservation and an effective end-to-end monitoring of the whole supply chain.

Tackling water challenges

In May 2019, the Government of India merged two water-related ministries; Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation into the Ministry of Jal Shakti to target water-related challenges in an integrated, holistic and effective manner. In June 2019, the government set an ambitious target of providing Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) for all rural households by 2024 under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Total estimated cost of JJM is Rs 3.60 lakh crore. The fund sharing pattern between Centre and state is 90:10 for Himalayan (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh) and North-Eastern states, 100:0 for UTs and 50:50 for rest of the states. The goal of JJM is to provide functional household tap connection to every household with service level at the rate of 55 litres per capita per day (lpcd). As a result of concerted action, more than 50 per cent of the total number of rural households in India has been provided with tap water connections as of June 2022. 

In another shot in the arm for water sustainability, the National Water Mission (NWM) was established under the Jal Shakti Ministry as one of the eight National Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The main objective of NWM is “conservation of water, minimising wastage and ensuring its more equitable distribution both across and within states through integrated water resources development and management'.

The NWM has identified five goals as under:

• Comprehensive water data base in public domain and assessment of the impact of climate change on water resource,
• Promotion of citizen and state actions for water conservation, augmentation, and preservation,
• Focused attention to vulnerable areas including over-exploited areas,
• Increasing water use efficiency by 20%, and
• Promotion of basin level integrated water resources management.

Another mission, The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0 (AMRUT 2.0) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs aims to provide 100% coverage of water, sewer and septage connections to all households in 4,700 Urban Local Bodies across 500 cities, by providing 26.8 million household tap connections and 26.4 million sewer/septage connections, thereby benefitting 107 million people. AMRUT 2.0 will promote circular economy of water through formulation of City Water Balance Plan for each city, focusing on recycle/reuse of treated sewage, rejuvenation of water bodies and water conservation. The total indicative outlay for AMRUT 2.0 is Rs 2,77,000 crore including central share of Rs 76,760 crore for five years from FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26. As per Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, 135 litres per capita per day (lpcd) has been suggested as the benchmark for urban water supply. As of June 2022, works have completed in 4,287 projects with a value of Rs 28,489 crores and work is in progress in 1,568 projects for Rs 53,186 crores.

It is pertinent to note that a combination of institutionalised measures, involvement of community, and implementation of technology has resulted in a few successful use cases which can be implemented across the country. A few examples are mentioned below:

1. A participatory approach for springshed management in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and the Nilgiris led to the revival of springs and natural streams in these regions and assured a continuous supply of water to locals. This shows how the involvement of people in groundwater management can go a long way in the preservation of natural aquifers. Conservation of springs and springshed management are crucial in groundwater management. Activities such as the preparation of an inventory of springs, training and knowledge dissemination, afforestation measures, hydro-geological mapping, demand management, protection of recharge area and water budgeting can contribute heavily to springshed management.
2. Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information and Management System (APWRIMS) is a smart water solution platform to achieve the objective of sustainable water management in Andhra Pradesh and to have a single authoritative system for all water supply, demand, and environmental factors. It is aimed at making water-related data transparently accessible on a near real-time basis to different stakeholders through an online GIS/MIS web-portal as well as through mobile and tablets.

Water outlook

Driven by the government initiatives and rising demand, the Indian water sector has witnessed several successful Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) projects in the last decade, proving that the country has a favourable investment ecosystem in the domain. This provides a great opportunity to the companies offering innovative technologies and solutions that could address the impending water situation in the country. India also has immense potential for the development of Sewage Treatments Plants (STPs), desalination projects, and other wastewater treatment and reuse projects over and above the development of drinking water supply infrastructure.

Private investors in the water sector holding rich expertise and competencies in all facets of water management including construction and operation of decentralised wastewater treatment plants, energy-efficient groundwater extraction, zero leakage distribution technologies and innovative technologies for purification of industrial wastewater and reuse have huge potential to invest and grow in India. Expertise in the fields of desalination, reverse osmosis, and forward osmosis technology for Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) is also promising.

India presents a strong case for the innovative and established companies in the water and wastewater treatment industry as well as climate funds around the world to explore investments, technology transfers, public private partnerships, and engineering and construction contracts in the Indian water sector.

Data, information, graphics source: NITI Aayog, CGWB, NHRC, PIB, JJM - Ministry of Jal Shakti, MoHUA 

- Karan Sethi

Assistant Vice President, Invest India

- Pratyush Kumar

Senior Investment Specialist Invest India

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