India faces a turbulent water future.

Unless water management practices are changed – and

changed soon – India will face a severe water crisis within the next two decades and will have
neither the cash to build new infrastructure nor the water needed by its growing economy and
rising population.

A draft World Bank report, India’s Water Economy: Bracing for a Turbulent Future, by John
Briscoe, Senior Water Advisor at the World Bank, examines the challenges facing India’s water
sector and suggests critical measures to address them. The report is based on 12 papers
commissioned by the World Bank from prominent Indian practitioners and policy analysts.

Crumbling Water Infrastructure and Depleting Groundwater

India’s past investments in large water infrastructure have yielded spectacular results with
enormous gains in food security and in the reduction of poverty. However, much of this
infrastructure is now crumbling. Shortfalls in financing have led to an enormous backlog of
maintenance. The implicit philosophy has been aptly described as Build-Neglect-Rebuild. Much of
what currently masquerades as "investment" in irrigation or municipal water supply is in fact a
belated attempt to rehabilitate crumbling infrastructure.

Faced with poor water supply services, farmers and urban dwellers alike have resorted to helping
themselves by pumping out groundwater through tubewells. Today, 70 percent of India’s irrigation
needs and 80 percent of its domestic water supplies come from groundwater. Although this
ubiquitous practice has been remarkably successful in helping people to cope in the past, it has
led to rapidly declining water tables and critically depleted aquifers, and is no longer sustainable.

A number of areas are already in crisis situations: among these are the most populated and
economically productive parts of the country. Estimates reveal that by 2020, India’s demand for
water will exceed all sources of supply. Notwithstanding the catastrophic consequences of
indiscriminate pumping of groundwater, government actions – including the provision of free
power – have exacerbated rather than addressed the problem.

Growing Water Conflicts

Severe water shortages have already led to a growing number of

conflicts across the country. Some 90 percent of India’s territory is
drained by inter-state rivers. The lack of clear allocation rules, and
uncertainty about what water each state has a right to, imposes
high economic and environmental costs. Other federal countries
which face water scarcity have clearly defined water rights. These
include Chile, Mexico, Australia, and South Africa, with Pakistan
and China fast putting in place systems of water entitlements.

On the international front, India has clearly demarcated water rights

with Pakistan through the Indus Waters Treaty. Nationally,
promising innovations on entitlements are visible in Noida, Ghaziabad, and Delhi which bought
water rights from the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) by financing the lining of canals in UP and in the
city of Chennai where water rights were leased from the state’s farmers.

Climate Change Worsens the Scenario

Sewage and waste water from rapidly growing cities and effluents from industries have turned
many rivers, including major ones, into fetid sewers. Massive investments are needed in sewers
and wastewater treatment plants to protect people’s health and improve the environment.
Climate change projections show that India’s water problems are only likely to worsen. With more
rain expected to fall in fewer days and the rapid melting of glaciers – especially in the western
Himalayas – India will need to gear up to tackle the increasing incidence of both droughts and
floods.

Massive Investments Needed

There is clearly an urgent need for action. First, India needs a lot
more water infrastructure. Compared to other semi-arid countries,
India can store relatively small quantities of its fickle rainfall.
Whereas India’s dams can store only 200 cu.m.of water per
person, other middle-income countries like China, South Africa,
and Mexico can store about 1000 cu.m. per capita.

New infrastructure needs to be built especially in underserved

areas such as the water-rich northeast of the country where
investments can transform water from a curse to a blessing.
Furthermore India, desperately short of power in peak periods, has utilized only about 20
percent of its economically viable hydropower potential, as compared to 80 percent in developed
countries. The country needs to invest in water infrastructure at all levels – from large
multipurpose water projects to small community watershed management and rainwater
harvesting projects.

Gearing Up for Tomorrow

Importantly, India cannot have a secure water future unless there are drastic
changes in the way the state functions. Past attention to infrastructure
development has to be complemented with present attention to water
resource and infrastructure management. And, policies and practices have to
come to grips with the challenges of the future.

The state needs to surrender those tasks which it does not need to perform
and to develop the capacity to do the many things which only the state can
do. Competition needs to be introduced in the provision of basic public water
services, bringing in cooperatives and the private sector. The state can then
focus on financing public goods such as flood control and sewage treatment
and play the role of regulator to balance the interests of users.

The state has to define water entitlements at all levels, improve the quality and quantity of data
and make these data available to the public, and has to stimulate the formation of user groups at
all levels – the river basin, the aquifer, and the irrigation district.

India's water future: scenarios and issues - strategic analyses of

the national river linking project (NRLP) of India

• Agriculture,
• Groundwater Irrigation,
• Irrigation,
• River Linking,
 • Water Conservation,
• Water Demand,
• India,
• Water Resources,
• Water Supply

In 2005, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Challenge
Program on Water and Food (CPWF) started a three-year research study on “Strategic
Analysis of India’s
River Linking Project”. The primary focus of the IWMI-CPWF project is to provide the
public and the policy planners with a balanced analysis of the social benefits and costs of
the National River Linking Project (NRLP). The project consists of research in three
phases. Phase I analyzed India’s water future scenarios to 2025/2050 and related issues.
Phase II, analyses how effective a response NRLP is, for meeting India’s water future and
its social costs and benefits. Phase III contributes to an alternative water sector
perspective plan for India as a fallback strategy for NRLP. This volume, the first in a
series of publications, presents the results of various research activities conducted in
Phase I on India’s Water Futures.

India's Water Economy Bracing for a Turbulent Future Book Description

India faces an unsure water future. Unless fresh policies are adopted and implemented to make
water development and management sustainable, India will have neither the means to maintain
the existing resources and build new infrastructure, nor the water required for its survival. This
report focuses on two basic issuesthe major water-related challenges facing India, and the critical
measures required to address them. It calls for a reinvigorated set of public water institutions to
sustain water development and management in India. The study:

examines the evolution of water management in India

describes the achievements of the past

analyses the challenges ahead

suggests ways of evolving a sustainable water management system

Drawing heavily on background documents by eminent Indian practitioners and policy analysts, it
explores various options of managing the transition from past practices in a principled and
pragmatic manner.