This year India experienced the most gruelling summer ever with 14 of 36 meteorological subdivisions in the country recording over 15 heatwave days between March 1 to June 9. According to the U.S.-based non-profit Climate Central study, more people in India faced climate change-induced extreme heat in June than any other country globally, with 619 million persons bearing the brunt of climate change-induced extreme heat between June 16 and June 24. The study also found, that in India heatwaves left more than 40,000 people with heatstroke, causing 100 casualties. Temperatures approached 50 degrees Celsius, with a night-time low of 37 degrees Celsius, reportedly the highest ever recorded in the country – the study reveals. The Chief of India’s Meteorological Department says heatwaves will be more frequent, durable and intense from now onward. Given the fact that this longest heatwave brought water woes in an already water-scarce nation, wrecking the capital Delhi’s water supply system in the process, Water Security is going to be the single most important agenda for policy-makers to address in the days ahead. Indian government-controlled public policy Think Tank NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog has already warned that the country is facing the worst water crisis in its history, with approximately 600 million people experiencing high to extreme water stress while inadequate access to safe water is estimated to cause 200,000 deaths annually. Last year, the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security predicted in its Interconnected Disaster Risk Report that India’s water demand will double the amount available by 2030, thus impacting the country’s GDP adversely.
For India, water security implies effective responses to changing water conditions in terms of quality, quantity and uneven distribution. Unheeded, it is bound to disturb inter-state relationships and equally contribute to tensions at the intra-provincial level. The Union Ministry of Water Resources or Jal Shakti has estimated the country’s water requirements to be around 1093 billion cubic meters (BCM) for the year 2025 and 1447 BCM for 2050. But, with a projected population growth of 1.4 billion by 2050, the available water resources would barely suffice the total water requirement of the country. In 1951, India’s annual per capita availability of water was 5177 m3, which shrunk to 1342 m3 by 2000. These facts indicate that India is expected to become severely water-stressed by 2025 and water-scarce by 2050, as an Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis (IDSA) Task Force report suggests. Moreover, India’s National Commission for Integrated Water Resource Development (NCIWRD) has estimated that against a total annual availability of 1953 BCM – including 432 BCM of ground and 1521 BCM of surface water – only 1123 BCM can be put to use, which constitutes only 55.6 percent. Adding to the woe, a fairly high level of pollution will further restrict water utilisation – posing a serious threat to its availability and use.
Having realised that affordable access to clean water for agricultural, industrial and household usage is an integral part of human security, New Delhi is partnering with Israel to implement the best technologies for ensuring water security. India and Israel are working on projects related to integrated water resources management, urban water supply and sewage recycling – all with the intent of addressing India’s water requirement for drinking and agriculture through the setting up of modern desalination plants, drip-water irrigation and water harvesting systems using emerging technologies. Hadas Bakst, Political Domestic Advisor in New Delhi’s Israeli Embassy reveals, “India is the only country in the world where Israel has deputed its maiden Water Attache for water sector collaboration.” The collaboration, in fact, started with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Indian Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation – now Jal Shakti – and Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, signed on November 11, 2016 in New Delhi – seeking deeper cooperation in water resources management and development. Bakst clarified, that the MoU identified the following aspects of collaboration:
(1) techniques in the efficient use of water resources,
(2) recycling/reuse of wastewater,
(3) desalination,
(4) aquifer recharge,
(5) in-situ water conservation techniques, and water management.
Subsequently, this alliance was further strengthened during the visits of Prime Ministers of Israel and India to each other’s country in 2017-2018. These high-level interactions underscores the strategic significance and depth of Indo-Israeli water collaboration. There have been several delegations of Indian officials, representing provincial and central governments, to Israel wherein these representatives were exposed to live projects on the ground and the delegations were tailor-made keeping in mind Indian requirements and priorities. “We are also planning to establish two Centers of Water Technology with our Indian partners. Once launched, these centres would initiate year-round capacity building programs, will have an exhibition of Israeli Technology and some high-end technology demonstration projects, as part of the Water Centers” Bakst asserted.
Meanwhile, climate change is threatening India’s agriculture and development too with extreme heat waves putting soil productivity at risk. Being a predominantly rural economy, productivity loss due to the heat effect will cost India 8.7 percent of its GDP by 2100. To combat this challenge, Israel is actively participating in efforts to boost water use efficiency in Indian agriculture. The governments of India and Israel have conceptualized two projects for reusing treated wastewater for advanced agriculture. Under each project, 200 million litres of treated wastewater would be utilized for irrigation of 10,000 acres of land and advanced agriculture would be practiced in these areas. If successful, this concept will be replicated on a larger scale across India as it will not only ensure water use efficiency for agriculture, by providing farmers with reliable high-quality 24/7 water throughout the year but also increase farmers’ income by two to three times. Bakst explained, “Water recycling is one major focus point of India-Israel collaborations. Israel has achieved water recycling levels of more than 90 percent. In other terms, 50 percent of our national agriculture needs are met through recycled water. We are working toward knowledge and technology transfer with our partners in India.”
For a country like India with a coastline of 7516.6 kilometres – 5422.6 kilometres of mainland coastline and 2094 kilometres of island territories – desalination is an important aspect of water security. Israel uses desalination extensively to produce water for domestic and industrial usage. In India, Israeli companies are working in collaboration on large-scale desalination projects. Bakst informs, “On G2G (government to government) levels, we, along with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, have identified a project for desalination in Lakshadweep Islands. We visited Lakshadweep last year and shared the visit report and conclusions for a project which offers more sustainable water resources for the pristine Islands. The model offered by our water team is cheaper, more efficient, easily scalable, requires less time for initiation and most importantly, reliable. The capital as well as operation and maintenance costs can be curtailed drastically if the proposed technology is adopted by our Indian counterparts.”
However, experts like Arjun Thapan have expressed reservations about India adopting desalination on a large scale. Thapan, who headed UNESCO’s International Hydrological Program Advisory Board, clarified – “from a supply-side perspective, desalination is certainly an option. But it should be more of an ‘insurance’ kind of choice and not a mainstream alternative. It is incorrect to compare Singapore, Israel and the Middle East with India – as the former have to depend on desalinated water for survival but India does not. Australia has built desalination plants for Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Only the Perth plant is used full-time; the rest are insurance. The reason I say that desalination should only be invested in as insurance is because it has several well-known downsides. The most important one is brine residue which destroys marine ecosystems and negatively impacts fish habitats. This is why the waters around the Middle East are almost entirely biologically dead. India, with a huge coastal fishing industry, cannot afford this situation. So far, there has been no technological solution to safe brine disposal. There is enough surface and groundwater in India to take care of the country’s needs. However, this statement of mine comes with caveats. If average water loss in the urban sector is no more than 15-20 percent; if irrigation efficiency improves to 75 percent; if the water footprint in commercial and industrial sectors shrinks to standards approximating those in the developed world; if wastewater is fully treated and up to 75 percent is recycled for industrial and agricultural use; and if individual demand is capped at 150 litres per day, then India can most definitely live within its water resources without recourse to desalination. None of these targets is unachievable. What is needed is a clear vision, clear policies and institutions that are empowered to deliver.”
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