Running dry

That the city of Mumbai suffers from water problems is not new — for years, an enduring Mumbai picture has been queues of people surrounded by buckets and jerry cans waiting for the municipal tap to start flowing. But this year, the failure of one monsoon has shown just how dire the situation is. Water supply has been cut by 15 per cent. A weekly 100 per cent cut is being considered. Frantic efforts are on to buy water from the state government and to divert water from other sources into the city.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) supplies around 3400  million litres a day and this apparently takes care of 70 per cent of the city’s needs. What are the needs? The maximum water that a person can require is about 230 litres of water per day. The BMC manages to supply about 90 litres per customer per day (lpcd) while slum dwellers get about 25 lpcd. By 2021, the projected required water supply will be 6300 million litres per day.
And even that is not likely to be enough.

Environmentalists have long predicted that the next wars will be over water. Usually, the discussion then veers to agriculture and the countryside. But we are going to face a massive problem in our growing urban centres if the problem is not tackled immediately. Mumbai replenishes its water supply annually with the monsoon. Other cities are not so fortunate — Chennai suffers the most.

In Ahmedabad, borewells have to go down over 1000 ft to find sweet water. Others just plunder their groundwater without a thought for tomorrow.

The Mumbai story playing out now can serve as an example for the rest of the country. The pipes in the island city and some of the older suburbs are British laid, over 100 years old.

The BMC does not have a proper map of where they are laid. The various infrastructure projects that are tearing Mumbai apart to fulfil its Shanghai dreams regularly break into water pipes with disastrous consequences.

Water pilferage and leakage account for anything from a 20 to 40 to an even 60 per cent loss of water everyday, depending on who you believe. Newly acquired electronic meters have turned out to be full of glitches — the chief minister of Maharashtra apparently does not use any water at all according to the meter at his official residence, which ironically is called ‘Varsha’ which of course means ‘rain’.

To add to the problem, the water supply is often contaminated and questions are being raised about the efficacy of the BMC’s chlorination plant.

The story ultimately, turns out to be a combination of heavy demand, decaying infrastructure, inefficiency, corruption and theft. And, then there is the way that our cities grow and our first impulse to destroy all green spaces in thrall of concrete growth. This is not just about cutting trees, it is also about covering up all open ground and paving all open spaces.

As a result, rainwater runs directly into the sea in Mumbai and runs off into the drainage system in other cities. This means that every monsoon, a grand opportunity to replenish ground water is being lost to urban development.

Local governments are slowly waking up to concepts like “rainwater harvesting” but it is likely that without popular or NGO support, these will remain concepts. The battle between development and the environment is tilted in favour of the former as people do not always find it easy to understand some larger delayed expensive solution when they are denied water to drink, bathe and cook today.

In an effort to quench Mumbai’s thirst, the authorities are looking at augmenting the supply from its six lakes and reservoirs from other sources. This will put additional pressure on the areas outside the city which are also urbanising at a rapid pace.

The state government of Maharashtra is now planning desalinisation plants; Tamil Nadu will start building a nuclear desalinisation plant in February while another plant awaits completion. This is the mantra across the world now — the earth maybe two thirds water but only about 3 per cent is fresh water.

The oceans and seas are waiting to be plundered then. We have to be careful, before we embark on this journey because our record in using natural resources for our own benefit has led us to a pretty calamitous position already.

As Mumbai grapples with its shortfall, it prays for a good monsoon in 2010. It can only be hoped that the water conservation being discussed now is not forgotten if the lakes overflow by this September. 

According to reports, India had a water shortfall of 25 per cent in 2003 — at the rate of 1,500 cubic meters per person per year. That is likely to rise to 33 per cent by 2025. The long term portents for water are looking, to say the least, dry.