Water scarcity is not the biggest problem in India. It is gross water mismanagement at every level and public and political ignorance and apathy. The summer this year was extraordinarily hot and our place was under severe water scarcity, but the rainy season hasn't even started and we've already got almost 6 months worth of rainfall for my city. The problem is most of that water is not allowed to go into the ground and recharge the groundwater since almost every single inch is cemented or tarred and it runs-off into the sea or evaporates back. There is sufficient rainfall to meet the needs of most regions on India but due to a large number of causes the water is not conserved or utilised properly.
Some of the causes are deforestation of hill slopes, large, ill-planned dams which are silting over, lack of water micro-management, storm-water drains instead of recharge wells, lack of rainwater harvesting, excessive consumption, encroachment of nearly every water-body, pollution of most of the remaining lakes and rivers etc. etc. It goes on and on. The point is India does get enough rainwater despite very hot summers, but human management sucks abysmally.
> the rainy season hasn't even started and we've already got almost 6 months worth of rainfall for my city.
I presume you're in Tamil Nadu because TN's rainy season is mostly due to the NE monsoon which hasn't started yet. Rainfall in the North-Western regions like Punjab really has been insufficient in past years. In many regions in Punjab it simply doesn't rain in the 'rainy season' anymore. Even in Tamil Nadu, didn't Chennai experience more than a 50% deficit in 2018?[1] When I visited Pondicherry a few years ago, everyone I spoke to said it now rains very little compared to the usual. This year's SW monsoon has seen heavy rains but it seems to be an outlier compared to the past few years.
You are correct that there is gross water mismanagement and unplanned urbanisation. Ironically, Chennai's National Institute of Ocean Technology -- one of whose jobs is to prepare impact assessment reports on 'the implications of constructing on waterbodies'[2] -- is itself constructed on a paved-over former catchment area (and gets flooded as a result).[3]
There was a report that the Syrian civil war started with droughts forcing whole regions to emigrate to Damascus and then unemployed farmers starting to march in the streets. I can't imagine what might happen if the same level of drought occur in South-east asia. War? Civil war? Revolution ? The nuclear weapons stored there makes this a danger for everyone on the planet
There have been reports that similar things are happening in Central America too. Farmers go from drought affected areas to the cities but then find the cities have crime problems so they head north.
"I can't imagine what might happen if the same level of drought occur in South-east asia." - think you mean South Asia? South East Asia is Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia etc...
As populations increase and resource shortages of various types become severe, migration and even travel will be shut down. The IT infrastructure and AI will allow trade to continue without travel.
It's not just that east Asia is not much welcoming to immigrants, also the opportunities offered are much different.
In addition if you have to move away with your family/from your people 1000km you might as well just move them 7000 more and be in a country which also speaks English and that offers social programs, free studies and other benefits.
Yeah makes you think if this is a scaremongering article from right-wing European parties. Of course, the big powers near India are countries like Russia and China which I don't believe would be very welcoming to people from India.
Bahrain has 3x the population density of India while Monaco is 56x more dense than India. Yet, the problem doesn't seem to manifest in those countries.
That's just the mean. It's much more in the cities (because that's where the jobs are), which leads to demand for more construction, which leads to more scarcity, etc.
The British left India with a pressurized, always-on water system.
Through lack of maintenance, most of that water system is no longer pressurized--the water comes on intermittently. That leads to the common practice by water consumers of having a pump on their end to fill their local cistern.
Since the originally-British water system was not maintained, it now leaks. So, unlike a pressurized water system--where leaks cause water to LEAVE the system, a non-pressurized system--as Indians now have--combined with the aforementioned pumps, makes it so leaky pipes cause outside filth to ENTER the system. Combine that with the practice of co-locating sewer lines in the same trenches as water lines, means that when the water comes on and individual pumps kick in, causes sewage water to enter the water system and be pulled into people's cisterns. That's why any Indian household like this must use reverse osmosis to make their water potable.
All because the pressurized water system was allowed to go derelict.
[+] [-] Santosh83|6 years ago|reply
Some of the causes are deforestation of hill slopes, large, ill-planned dams which are silting over, lack of water micro-management, storm-water drains instead of recharge wells, lack of rainwater harvesting, excessive consumption, encroachment of nearly every water-body, pollution of most of the remaining lakes and rivers etc. etc. It goes on and on. The point is India does get enough rainwater despite very hot summers, but human management sucks abysmally.
[+] [-] kranner|6 years ago|reply
I presume you're in Tamil Nadu because TN's rainy season is mostly due to the NE monsoon which hasn't started yet. Rainfall in the North-Western regions like Punjab really has been insufficient in past years. In many regions in Punjab it simply doesn't rain in the 'rainy season' anymore. Even in Tamil Nadu, didn't Chennai experience more than a 50% deficit in 2018?[1] When I visited Pondicherry a few years ago, everyone I spoke to said it now rains very little compared to the usual. This year's SW monsoon has seen heavy rains but it seems to be an outlier compared to the past few years.
You are correct that there is gross water mismanagement and unplanned urbanisation. Ironically, Chennai's National Institute of Ocean Technology -- one of whose jobs is to prepare impact assessment reports on 'the implications of constructing on waterbodies'[2] -- is itself constructed on a paved-over former catchment area (and gets flooded as a result).[3]
[1] https://weather.com/en-IN/india/monsoon/news/2018-12-23-hist...
[2] https://qz.com/india/563396/chennai-floods-are-not-a-natural...
[3] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/natural-disasters/why-ch...
[+] [-] mtw|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] megous|6 years ago|reply
Causes of Syrian war are a bit more complicated than what you say. Marches don't necessarily lead to war.
[+] [-] rjsw|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shrumm|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vinalk|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Merrill|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peteretep|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nudpiedo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Cthulhu_|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wtdata|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] denzil_correa|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kranner|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] british_india|6 years ago|reply
Since the originally-British water system was not maintained, it now leaks. So, unlike a pressurized water system--where leaks cause water to LEAVE the system, a non-pressurized system--as Indians now have--combined with the aforementioned pumps, makes it so leaky pipes cause outside filth to ENTER the system. Combine that with the practice of co-locating sewer lines in the same trenches as water lines, means that when the water comes on and individual pumps kick in, causes sewage water to enter the water system and be pulled into people's cisterns. That's why any Indian household like this must use reverse osmosis to make their water potable.
All because the pressurized water system was allowed to go derelict.
[+] [-] pressurefree|6 years ago|reply
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