The water crisis in Shimla is a warning for India
The country has failed on all counts when it comes to water management
In India, every ecological crisis has a familiar lifecycle. No one, be it administrators, politicians or the public, takes note when things just begin to go wrong, but once it finally crosses a critical threshold level, all hell breaks loose. Take the case of Shimla. The capital and the largest city in Himachal Pradesh and a tourist haven has had no water for the past week. Things would not have come to such a pass if the administrators, politicians and the local residents took note of the impending crisis and did something about it. Over the past three summers, water availability had plunged to 29 or 30 million litres per day. This year, the supply was only about 20 MLD. The water demand in Shimla during peak tourist season is around 45 MLD. It is not difficult to ascertain why the water availability to the city has been decreasing. It could be that deforestation, a combination of population explosion, unplanned growth of the city and its expansion to some traditional catchment areas have led to a reduction in the natural flow of water.
Water stress is not new to India. Many Indian cities, including Delhi and Bangalore, face a water crisis, especially that of freshwater. This is not surprising because the country has failed in so many fronts. There is no attempt at the central or state levels to manage water quantity and quality, a lack of implementation of existing laws and regulations, corruption, poor adoption rates of technologies such as desalination plants, no charges on water usage and huge distribution losses. Add to this, deforestation and pollution of water bodies, export of water-intensive crops, and over dependence on groundwater. There is also a lack of interest in maintaining the traditional water harvesting structures.
India needs to focus on recycling and harvesting water, having better testing and purification facilities and increase awareness on the need to conserve water. Otherwise, Shimla-like incidents will recur across the country.