Shimla water crisis: Besides increased summer tourism, what else parches Himachal's capital?

It is summertime and Shimla is a busy place. There are travellers to be checked-in, woollens to be sold at discounted 'summer' prices and tourists waiting to be shown around the mountain vistas. But, there is one thing whose mention is enough for everyone to pause and reflect on — water or the lack of it.

There is an unconcealed unanimity across government offices, hotels and homes in the hill town, commercial establishments on the famous Mall Road and villages on the outskirts that the water crisis this summer is the worst that Shimla has ever faced. While the scarcity has always reared its head each summer, locals and experts admit that the acute crisis, which lasted over three weeks between May 20 and June 12, is unprecedented.

"We did not have water for 15 days at a stretch. It was an ordeal for all of us in the neighbourhood. It was especially hard on all the women as taps ran dry even at the public toilets. We had to send our kids to relatives' homes in other cities," said Soma Jaiswal, 77, a former employee of the health department from Mashobra.

Jaiswal added that they were largely dependent on tankers to get by. "Ironically, one of the main water pipelines was leaking and it became another source of water during the crisis."

Shimla's problems, though, run much deeper than just a leaking pipeline that can be fixed with a new one. Once considered a pioneering water supply system in Asia, it is woefully wanting to match up to the present-day problems. Unchecked urban expansion and its rapacious demand for water, archaic water distribution system, bulging tourism, migration, climate change and lack of administrative vision over the years has led to the summer crisis of 2018.

People wait to collect drinking water from a natural water source in Shimla—PTI

Water sources & the crisis

Shimla has five major sources of water; Gumma Khad, Giri, Churat, Chair and Ashwani Khad. Khads are local names for rivulets. All sources are fed by a combination of catchments in forested areas, smaller natural springs, rainfall, and snowmelt. Around two-hours each from the centre of the town lies Gumma and Giri, the backbone of Shimla's water supply, providing over 75 per cent of the town's water supply.

The gravity of the water shortage hit the town on May 22 when out of a total current installed capacity of 54 million litres per day (MLD), only 26.75 MLD or 49 per cent of the town's water was available at the five water sources. During the last week of May water levels in Giri and Gumma, with a capacity of 21.7 and 20 MLD each, had alarmingly dropped below 10 MLD. To add to the town's woes, supply from Ashwani Khad, that has a capacity of 10 MLD, had been shut down prior to the water crisis due to contamination from a nearby sewage treatment plant.

"From May 22-23, we realised that the problem was going to be acute. We began rationing water from the beginning and we were alternating supply across the city's different areas. There are competing irrigation demands upstream. Areas, where residents did not have water storage facilities, suffered more," said Dharmendra Gill, Superintending Engineer, Greater Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Circle.

"Between 40-43 MLD, supply is considered good enough and during peak summer, the supply is around 35-36 MLD. But, the low rainfall, as well as very little snowfall, was a double blow. We had held a meeting of all sub-divisions in January to dovetail resources but the water depleted fast during summer months. Nevertheless, we tried our best to provide tankers in all residential areas," said Amit Kashyap, Deputy Commissioner, Shimla.

To plug the water shortage, the Chief Minister's Office, Municipal Corporation, Department of Irrigation and Public Health (I&PH) and Deputy Commissioner's office, together, fixed a water rationing schedule. The remedies to the unfolding scarcity were also supervised in a large measure by the Shimla High Court.

The town was divided into three zones and up to June 12, water was supplied after a gap of three days. In addition to rationing, corporation and I&PH tankers drew water from the Sutlej, more than two hours away, to fill up the water sources that had gone dry and quench the thirst of residents.

But, Shimla's difficult topography, nearly a century-old with a leaking water distribution system and discretionary water supply in certain influential areas left chunks of the town high and dry.

Colonial-era system & impact

To understand Shimla's water woes, it is essential to understand the evolution of its water sources, water pumping, supply, and distribution network that was established by the erstwhile British rulers from 1820 onward.

Between 1870 and 1921-22, after Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India, the former rulers tapped three-four water sources such as the Mahasu forest catchment or Dhalli, Churat, Jagroti, Nauti Khad. They also established the world's highest water lifting scheme, pumping water 1,500 meters up from Gumma to Craignano storage tank. This was to cater to a population of a maximum of 20,000 people. Today, Shimla's population is over two lakh and additionally it has a year-round floating population of tourists.

"In 1870's, the first systematic supply started in the catchment area forest known as the Mahasu area, the land was taken from Rana of Koti, various streams and springs were tapped and diverted to a large water tank. It was that water tank's water which started coming to Shimla in the 1880s," said Raaja Bhasin, historian, and convenor, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Shimla.

Even as the British-era pipelines used for pumping water are working fine, the same cannot be said for the distribution network pipeline. During the water crisis, residents blocked roads in certain parts of the city as the distribution was leaky and wasteful.

The high court too noted the loss of water during a hearing on June 11. "It is an undisputed fact that in the process of uplifting water from various sources to Shimla town, more than 5 MLD of water is being lost or wasted daily...be it for various reasons, including leakage theft." The municipal corporation was also ordered plugging of leaks and overflowing cross-sections. A total of 49 such spots were plugged afterward.

The local administration is already carrying out some changes in the distribution system. The town's entire distribution system is going to be changed in a phased manner, which is going to be time-consuming. But at the moment, I&PH is laying down new pipes to plug leakages from the older cross-sections. "We are laying a 7.5-km line from Craignano to Dhalli and a 1.5-km pipeline from Sanjauli to Ridge area."

Climate change

While the state government and the I&PH is already expediting a Rs 770 crore World Bank-funded project to draw water from Sutlej to quench Shimla's thirst, locals are worried about the impact of climate change that manifests in the trend of decreasing snowfall in Shimla.

Studies done by India Meteorological Department (IMD) show that Shimla snowfall period has reduced by nearly three weeks and there is also a downward trend in rainfall between December and February. IMD data for the last five years showed that with the exception of 2014, each December saw below normal rainfall with a maximum deficit of 90 per cent in 2016.

"This year, precipitation was 70 per cent lesser than normal during January and February. The trend is clear that snowfall and rainfall during winters is decreasing," said Manmohan Singh, director, IMD, Shimla.

The significantly lower precipitation had a direct impact on the town's water sources. Deenbandhu Garg, 62, runs a grocery shop not far from the Gumma Khad. Garg says that though Gumma and the villages around haven't seen severe water shortage, the drying up of the Khad is a first. "I don't remember the Gumma khad ever going dry. This winter, snowfall was scant and even in this area, where the older streams are still not constructed upon, we had to rely on tankers till June 11 because they had reduced to a trickle at many places. Shimla's thirst has increased so rapidly that the available means are not enough," Garg said.

Vanishing streams vs increasing demands

Even as climate change is adversely impacting Shimla's watershed, there are also a host of man-made reasons that have put immense stress on the town's water sources.

Old-timers in Shimla, who have seen the town grow from a quiet hill-station to a crowded tourist destination, rue the loss of Shimla's 'baudis' or local streams. The baudis were the fall-back option for locals whenever there was a shortage of water. But, over the years, most of Shimla's baudis have been concretised and built on in residential as well as commercial areas. Those streams, that still exist, are also facing a serious problem of contamination due to solid waste, locals added.

INTACH convenor Bhasin said that some of the local streams need to be restored and revived in order to supplement the water supply and fix this problem. "There is a huge pressure of constructions, both legal and illegal, which requires a lot of water. To solve this problem, Shimla's distribution has to be fixed, it needs infrastructure for a greater water holding capacity. Older springs and sources, such as the Combermere stream, which was tapped by the British, need to be restored."

Shimla's water also sees competing demands from villages that are situated close to its source and that of real estate and tourism. During the water crisis, there were contrasting responses and actions from the villages against real-estate to conserve water. While it took orders from High Court to halt the indiscriminate use of water at the many construction sites in the city, villages near Gumma and Giri volunteered to reduce their share of water for Shimla.

According to the municipal corporation, it ordered 66 construction sites to stop using water during the crisis and they are currently in the process of making an inventory of illegal connections.

MUMBAI'S WATER WOES

In 2014, rains continued to evade the city. Water levels in lakes supplying drinking water to it went down day-by-day. At that time, the stock in three important lakes was only 36 per cent of what it was a year before that. It was, in fact, below the lowest drawable limit. There was also 15-20 per cent water loss due to evaporation, which was much more in 2014. Transmission loss of 700 million litres was another issue. City’s major source is Bhatsa dam from where it gets 65 per cent of its water; the rest comes from other five lakes. The authorities had said that a contingency plan would include seeking help from railways to bring water in special containers. 

FAMINE-AFFECTED RAJASTHAN

The desert state of Rajasthan was in the grip of a water crisis with 19 out of the 33 districts being famine-affected in 2016. The government had sent water trains to parched Bhilwara and tankers to other areas facing acute shortage. Nearly 17,000 out of the total 44,672 villages were facing acute water crisis. Ninety per cent of water-related schemes in the state are dependent on ground water but the ground water table has gone down substantially. That year, rainfall was deficit in districts like Bhilwara, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Sawaimadhopur, Jaipur, Alwar, Dausa and Pratapgarh. 

WORST WATER CRISIS IN HISTORY

India is currently facing its worst water crisis in its history threatening millions of lives, a first of a kind ‘composite water management index’ by Niti Aayog said on June 15, 2018. The water management index ranked 24 states on the basis of nine broad indicators, based on data for 2015-16 and 2016-17, and Gujarat topped the index, the report stated. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra followed Gujarat on the index while Tripura ranked as the best among Northeastern and hill states. Worryingly, some of the most populous states in the country such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana were the worst performers.