Contemporarily there are many global issues that are affecting the citizens of the world as a single community; disrupting natural framework and disturbing the social and economic progress. The unavailability or inadequate access to clean water is one of them. It is also termed as water crisis in the global standards. There is scarcity of freshwater due to depleting sources and contamination of clean water. India, a giant nation which is home to approximately 103 billion people is also suffering from water crisis. In June 2018, the Government of India (GOI) reported that the country “…is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat” (NITI Aayog, 2018, p.15). The governments have launched various schemes and made new policies to curb the problem. Despite the efforts of the Indian Government, the situation (threat) pertains which is implied as failure of government schemes because of unorganized infrastructures and declining economics. This essay argues that despite the government efforts; the problem of water crisis is not reducing and stress the need to emphasize on producing better policies for results in actual.
The lack of attention by the government in implementing effective and structured policies on time has been underlined as the main reason behind the worsening of crisis. There is also ignorance to the fact that the ground water level is lowering largely due to exploitation by companies like coca cola in several parts of India. There are millions of farmers in India who are withdrawing tons of water and contaminating soil and water by the use of insecticides and pesticides. It is considered a failure of government; being unable to put a halt on such practices by not providing effective organic alternatives to farmers or imposing strict laws. There is Government policies are based on incorrect data .e.g. Mahir Shah Committee diagnosis. Hence when the real data is not known the actual issue cannot be solved; the problems pertain. Facilities created by Indian government are also not properly maintained. Moreover industrial effluent standards are not enforced because the state pollution control boards have inadequate technical and human resources.”
According to a report of the National Bureau of Asian Research, Washington, USA, there is insufficient and delay of funding in water-purifying in urban areas. Most of the rivers in India consist of undrinkable water, and sometimes not even fit for bathing. The government of India had launched the Ganga action plan in 1984 aiming to clean the Ganges River in a 25 year period, but it was proved out to be unsuccessful as in many places the river was contaminated with a high coli count. Maintenance of the treatment facilities is also not proper. This shows the shortcomings of the government in planning and executing a scheme. As per statement of Brooks (2007), “the tragedy of India’s water scarcity is that the crisis could have been largely avoided with better water management practices.” So the solution to this crisis is to change water management practices by regulating usage with effective legislation and proper screening and analyzing the results with schedule.
In this article, M Dinesh Kumar states the recommendation made by the Mihir Shah committee for surface and groundwater management. The author uses the data from articles and reports of international research institutes and government of India reports to describe that the statistics are based on outdated concepts. His report focuses mainly on the statistics on the irrigation water usage. This research has been useful for my research as it clearly states the flaws in statistics and diagnosis that are to be used in policy making by the Government. Although this article will not form the basis of my research, it will be useful supplementary for my research on flaws in water policies on water crisis.
In this article, Dr. S. Patnayak is stating out of India perspective about the water issue in India based on the reports of the international research institutes including UNICEF. The author targets to address the inability of India to reverse the increasing water crisis due to its ineffective water management practices and legislation. The author also compares the trends of water usage and extraction of groundwater between India and US. This article is useful for my topic as it states the fact that Indian law has virtually no legislation on groundwater. This article provides the information based on the facts that helps me explain my views.
In this article, Dr. S. Patnayak uses the references from the article imminent water crisis in India by Brooks N to state governments’ role in this crisis. The author accuses the Government of Indian of lack attention in various aspects towards tackling water crisis which could have been avoided beforehand. The article is very useful in my topic as particularly states the faults in water management practices. The article clearly holds the government accountable for worsening of water crisis which is my topic.