Water crisis: Act now or perish

If one reads this with the Indian Meteorological Department's second forecast that northwest and northeast India could have less-than-normal rains, and private weather forecaster Skymet's advisory that Vidarbha, Marathwada, west Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat will have 'poorer than normal' rains and southern India will receive below normal rainfall, the overall water scenario looks daunting. India, in any case, is facing the worst water crisis in its history. According to NITI Aayog's Composite Water Index, by 2020, 100 million people will be affected by a shortage of groundwater in 21 Indian cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. And about 40% of the country's population will have no access to drinking water by 2030. It's not too difficult to discern why the country is facing such an acute crisis. A report released by a team of researchers from Canada's McGill University and Utrecht University in the Netherlands blames irrigation techniques, industrial and residential habits combined with climate change for this problem. Along with its economic and ecological dimension, the water crisis also has a huge health cost. In India, about 200,000 people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water, according to the Composite Water Management Index report (2018). The situation is expected to worsen as demand for water increases. While there are no easy solutions, India must turn this crisis into an opportunity by building artificial recharging structures, renovating the existing water harvesting systems, cleaning up water bodies, investing in water recycling, focusing on crops that are not water intensive, improving irrigation efficiency and reducing water leakage, among other things. However, the key will be to make citizens understand that water is a finite resource and it is critical to reduce consumption. DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: Hindustan Timeshttps://www.viki.com/users/yoz_kelv_ozk_eeneens_626/about