1.6 per cent water bodies are encroached of which 5 per cent are in the urban area

According to India’s 1st water body census (which happened only as recently as in 2018-19), we have 2.4 million water bodies (97 per cent in rural areas) and (60 per cent ponds by number) 1.6 per cent water bodies are encroached of which 5 per cent are in the urban areas. My naïve assumption here is that these 1920 urban water bodies have been ‘worked on’ and swallowed by our thriving land shark ecosystem.

They have been compromised or shrunk in size with dumping of construction and household waste, sewage and industrial effluents, siltation, breaking of bunds, by blockage of natural inlets, by culverts or road and other construction. And finally, some plain old natural evaporation as well as seepage into the ever-lowering water table.

India’s water shortage is exacerbated by contaminated surface water bodies and lack of access to treated piped water leaving over 100m people without access to safe drinking water. Resultant water borne diseases, neo natal and infant mortality and poor health of millions among the economically disadvantaged, convert our demographic dividend into an unfortunate healthcare and economic curse.  Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Jodhpur face severe water shortages periodically.

The Gini Coefficient, if there was one of clean and potable water, I would guess would be far more iniquitous than our already hugely inegalitarian statistic on per capita income.

This is the situation in the beginning of 2025, which is over 4 years after the 2020 case of Narmada Bachao Andolan vs Union of India, where the Supreme Court ruled that the right to water as an essential part of the right to life, guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and that rivers and water sources needed to be cleaned up and preserved.

We should track two base metrics for urban/rural residents by State:

• Daily per capita litres of
    o potable water
    o general household use water

• Gini coefficient for water

It is time we look at the water emergency that we are faced with.

Water, along with clean air and land, need to be the top three priorities for our economy to be built on a solid foundation.

We need a four pronged focus for water:

1. Revival, rejuvenation and protection of our natural water bodies and their ecosystems including the flora and fauna including sub soil Aquifer renewal

2. Boosting the per capita availability of Potable water

3. Efficient Distribution with minimal leakages

4. Responsible water Usage

Our Jal Shakti Ministry – Department of Water Resources, River development and Ganga Rejuvenation would be focused on this.

However, as an aside, we have more than 400 rivers in our country with 14 major river systems and 99 smaller river basins, it is non-inclusive to call out one river in the name of the department to the exclusion of the Eastern, Western and Southern Indian river basins.

And now for the good news

There are several organizations, people and communities across our nation doing tremendous work in varied areas relating to water.

The Delhi Government since 2015 has worked to make 700 liters per day of ‘lifeline water’ free to every household, expanded piped water connections to many informal clusters, enhancing their dignity while also reducing pipe breakages and leakages. I imagine these steps improved the water Gini coefficient in the nation’s capital.

In Aug 2024, I met with the Denkanikottai Farm Owners in Hosur taluka of Tamil Nadu and representatives of TPSOH – The Peoples Society of Hosur, who were working to revive a 10-acre lake at the edge of the Chakrapani family’s farm. TPSOH was formed in 2014 to revive the main lake in Hosur and the team outlined how they had restored 34 lakes thus far, ranging from 10 to 150 acres in size, with this one being the 35th, and getting ground water levels to rise from 1500 ft to ~200 ft to benefit all the agriculturists around. M Prasad, the President of TPSOH outlined how they work with various Government departments on the principle of no blame, shame or anger to secure the appropriate Governmental clearances with a detailed project report, and work hand in hand with the concerned residents to execute the project.

While walking along a part of the bund of the lake being revived, the TPSOH representatives outlined the steps undertaken to get the lake restoration executed:

1. Getting agreement from the immediate community that the revival of this now bone-dry lake was in everyone’s self, as well as common interest

2. Getting agreement to roll back the encroachments, done knowingly or unknowingly over the years

3. Getting governmental approvals for the work to restore the water body system based on the detailed project report

4. Collecting the resources to clean, de-weed, de-silt the lake and make the lake bund with the silt

5. Creating islands in the lake with local vegetation to rebuild the ecosystem over time

6. Clearing the natural rainwater inlets to the lake of any blockages

7. Laying concrete pipes where inlets flow into the lakes

8. Strengthening the bunds with grasses to bind; native herbs and fruit trees to regenerate a bio-diverse ecosystem and encourage native birds to visit

9. Putting in a system in place for regular maintenance and development along with some beautification, to deepen local engagement – a critical ingredient for long term maintenance.

It’s amazing to see how we humans can come together in times of adversity and seek to engage in positive, collective action. It was such a positive sight, to see the delight of the farm owners seeing the first puddles in this lakebed in Denkanikottai. This was proof enough that ground water levels had risen close to the excavated lakebed, where further rains would herald the revival of this lake.

In 2019-20 Y Raghu Rao who founded the Prahari trust in Hyderabad along with the help of I Nature watch foundation and the Ladybird organization, worked with the Nizam pet Municipal body and with CSR funds from DCB bank got a polluted, smelly and dying AchariKunta lake revived. Cattle bathing, religious waste immersion and algae bloom were prime contributors to the lake’s decline. It is now a lake that is a joy to those living next to it, with 40 species of birds, 35 species of butterflies, and bees, bats, flowering plants, walkers and joggers, making sure there is both a thriving natural ecosystem, as well as an engaged community who will be the lake’s guardians from here on.

Sanoth wetlands in the outskirts of Delhi is now a place where locals spend time there and enjoy nature. Not that long ago in 2021, it was a dirty puddle in waste land, with the attendant problems. This has also helped in addressing a part of the falling water tables in and around Delhi. Several other water bodies in the capital region are being worked on by the local government, to provide water security as well as bringing back biodiversity and much needed green cover.

Anand Malligavad from Bangalore is also known as India’s lake man. In 2017 he was fueled by a passion to ensure Bangalore did not become a zero-water city as had Cape Town. His survey of water bodies shocked him as he found many to be hazardous sludge and dump yards producing methane and noxious gases. He studied the Chola Lake systems which did not require crores of rupees but re-interlinking of lakes and tanks with soil, water, botanicals and canals designed on the catchments and flows. These interlinking channels had been blocked by bunds, encroachments, roads and garbage. He worked with a CSR grant from his company, separated a fresh water from a smaller grey water lake, and planted local plants. Over the next few years, rainwater has come in to revive the lake. This is a model he has repeated over, and over again. Nature is our planet’s biggest healer and rejuvenator. Anand is now working with the Governments of Orissa and UP.

Vishwanath, the rain man of Bangalore, is an urban planner and civil engineer. He runs the Biome Environmental trust and is on a mission to save his city by digging a million recharge wells to harvest at least half of the rainfall that Bangalore gets. When I met him a few months ago, it was apparent that his passion, simple and scientific approach, and boundless energy, would get more and more people to align and work together for the obvious common benefit. Harnessing the well digger community, fishermen and farmers to get a circular economy going, is what Vishwanath’s model has at its core. Deep borewells have gone down to 1800 ft where the water has more chemical contaminants. Shallower aquifers he says, have contaminants that are bacterial and easier to treat and manage. Each neighborhood and community having its own well makes them better protected and maintained. This model is being adopted in another 9 cities thanks to Vishwanath.

Nimal Raghavan a water warrior from Tanjore, has revived over 130 lakes in the Cauvery delta and raised water levels from 600 ft to 60 ft. Let’s see how this can be replicated given similar conditions in other rain fed deltas, especially in Southern and Eastern India, which otherwise tend to have drought and flood cycles, both of which wreak havoc.

I Am Gurgaon, spearheaded by the indefatigable Latika Thukral, after reviving a 350-acre sand mining area in the Aravalli’s and regenerating it into a biodiverse forest area for all to enjoy, has been working tirelessly on water bodies across Gurgaon. Ponds, lakes and creeks have been revived by channeling rainwater back into its natural outlets blocked by construction, culverts, and neglect. This has the longer-term benefit of raising ground water levels and over time obviating the need for the ubiquitous and illegal bore wells. This also diverts rainwater from the roads back to where they used to normally flow, reducing flooding of roads, which during every monsoon has Gurgaon looking like Venice, with cars floating by like gondolas. Almost sounds romantic unless you happen to be the gondolier. Working across the spectrum of residents, corporates, and the local government, I Am Gurgaon has achieved a lot, silently. I have seen their outcomes grow exponentially since 2007 when I first met Latika, during plantation drives at some of our runs we would organize in Gurgaon, and later, in the creation of the Aravalli Biodiversity Park.

These are just a few examples of success driven out of despair with a few things in common, be they in an urban or a rural setting – driven by what I call LIFE which is the end positive outcome too:

• Leadership – a selfless and passionate driver/drivers

• Inclusivity – engaging civil society, industry, government, media, naturalists, scientists, NGO’s and the local community

• Fraternity – Cooperation with no blame, shame or anger (a la TPSOH)

• Engagement – for longer term sustenance by the community

Local governments and politicians can multiply and showcase these lifechanging outcomes prior to our ever so regular polls.

Also ‘somehow’, citizen led projects (as stated by each of the varied people I connected with) typically come in at 20-25 per cent of the costs and in a fraction of the time, compared to those done by Government bodies, much to the chagrin of the single point agenda vested interests.

The Government has allocated Rs 690 crore (per a report I recently read) to clean and rejuvenate Pune’s Mula-Mutha river which used to be reasonably nice in the early 80’s while I was posted there during my 1st assignment with Hindustan Lever. This is welcome news as it is now an unhygienic, smelly eyesore. It would be good to set out publicly the outcomes and time frames and beat both of them.

The Mumbai civic bodies meanwhile have two major challenges on their hands.

1. Provide water to several not so well-off residents to reduce pipe breakages and seepage – perhaps take a leaf out of the Delhi experience.

2. Revival of the Mithi river. Its estuary is the particularly notorious spot on the Western suburban train line when you hold your breath between Mahim and Bandra, hoping that the train does not slow down, as it invariably does there.

They should also seek engagement of the several stakeholders as others have done, and not unilaterally, go it alone. This will lead to a holistic and a sustainable solution as they tackle pollution and effluent sources upstream with the several bright minds from varied disciplines, that the city has on offer.

In our Northeastern States global warming has reduced flows of several gushing mountain springs which are primary water sources for hill settlements, while deforestation in upper reaches has led to more frequent flooding and silting downstream, with mining and industrial effluents contaminating water with fluorides, arsenic. Effluent treatment must be enforced, and the judiciary needs to step up the penalties appropriately, and the government enforce the same.

In Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, Global warming fueled by our collective apathy to think ahead given that we ostrich like discount the future so heavily, has given our snow fed rivers and fast-vanishing glaciers a much more limited life, It is estimated that around two thirds of our Glaciers will not exist by the end of the century or perhaps sooner. The rivers, among the holiest in our land, are also among the most polluted, with denuded banks given deforestation and ensuing erosion.

Water everywhere but not a drop to drink:

Caron Rawnsley a 75-year-old Irishman has restored several stepwells (bawris) in Jodhpur which he calls home. Can we learn from the century’s old wisdom and revive many more? We have several step wells across Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka to name a few. Nature is the auto replenisher.

Safe Water Network, an NGO, is focused on promoting sustainable last mile safe water solutions and works with the Jal Shakti and Housing and Urban Affairs Ministries. In rural India, women are responsible for collecting 80 per cent of the water especially in water short areas. Safe Water Network piloted a Women’s self-help group program in Medak district of Telangana promoting women’s entrepreneurship and alternative income means by freeing them up while providing a sustainable source of water to 150,000 community members.

In Delhi in 2023, 7 water ATM’s were experimented with. Borewell water was put through reverse osmosis machines, providing 20 litres of potable water per household via a smart card. Without the card or beyond that amount, the water had a charge. This has helped reduce the business of the water tanker mafia. This is being expanded to 500 after the initial success of the pilot ATMs.

Can this be rolled out to other metros and get the right to life ensured from the perspective of water?

Using scarce water more efficiently is the next area to focus on. Peter Frykman, post Stanford, founded Driptech in 2008 to make small plot farming more profitable. Now absorbed by Jain irrigation, Goutam Das, Driptech’s Pune based CEO, told me that switching to drip irrigation solutions save around 50 per cent of the water. Additionally, farmers get better quality produce as well as greater output, along with using 30 per cent less energy, power and labor, truly transforming farm economics and the lives of users. Laser spray irrigation in vegetables, onion, garlic and grapes as well as drip irrigation in water hungry large acreage sugarcane, cotton and others like groundnut, maize, millets, potato and soyabean are current crops where they have rolled out across Southern and Western India.

Saving water, however, is not a priority for the farmers so investing in drip irrigation is not of as much interest to many. This makes the roll out slow and only a season later, trialing farmers see the additional benefits of yield, quality and inputs. 

It is here again that relevant food and agricultural companies could work with farmers

 they source from or otherwise, on aid via CSR or advances on the initial investment in the drip systems. This could explode take up for a win across many parameters while saving precious water. Of course, targeted incentives, as well as appropriate pricing of irrigational water, by the Jal Shakti and Agricultural Ministries once executed widely, would help institutionalize resource conservation and productivity focused mindsets.

As individuals especially in more affluent homes, can we reduce water consumption not because we cannot afford to pay for it, but because our neighborhood or country cannot afford us to waste (even if someone next door has wasteful behavior)

• reduce the water pressure of the kitchen tap

• bathe for a few minutes less

• use a front load washing machine which uses around 50 per cent less water than a top load, and so on.

• can our schools give students interesting projects on water conservation practices and perhaps even an outdoor camp in any type of water rejuvenation activity.

We need a stick:

We need to define certain activities as criminal along with consequences

1. draining untreated effluents

2. blocking natural water flow channels

3. silting up a lake which will later be dried up and constructed upon by land sharks especially when it is nearer or within an urban area

It is here that the legislature and judiciary need to list out prohibited water related actions and consequences.

Water needs to be priced appropriately for both agricultural use as well as domestic use on a slab basis which will automatically lead to a behavioral change.

It would be amazing if media houses would showcase work being done

Going forward:
We have paid lip service or pointed fingers for far too long rather than bite the bullet, and tackle the root causes of unchecked deforestation, erosion, pollution, untreated effluents flowing into the rivers. Then the seepages, vested interests, land, water tanker and other related mafia need addressing so that we can finally focus on efficient usage of water and ultimately impact attitudes and behaviors of all of us citizens. This is that we need to solve for urgently and all that is needed in intent and help those already working on solutions.

Corporate actions in a town where their factory is could make an example of reviving a water body, discharging treated effluents, digging recharge wells to harness rainwater, or adopt a section of a nearby river, or revive a bawri or support a government program of drinking water ATM’s or…. Through their existing CSR funds, or FICCI/ CII and other industry bodies could get various companies to team together and do bigger things through their existing CSR plough backs or otherwise. This could make a huge difference in the near term itself and get existing actors doing good work, to scale and have their models replicated/tweaked. Industry associations could help measure impact and media houses could spread the news of positive outcomes, adopt a program or a geography and engage their readers to make a difference in their homes and workplaces or company projects and make this a mainstream activity.

The Judiciary and the Executive could further step up their outcomes exponentially. Enforced legal boundaries are critical for preservation and rejuvenation of the depleted resources we are left with.

Whenever we see a dry patch which used to be a water body, a filthy water body crying out for help, a flooded road or a waterlogged area during the monsoon, people queueing with water vessels outside a village tap or a water tanker, we know that there are natural fixes, age old ways of doing more with less water, and that there are several champions tirelessly working on varied solutions, mostly out of media coverage. Let’s locate them on YouTube and Google and get inspired by or work with them.

Let’s put on a bigger hat and be a part of the solution in whatever way possible, and there are several– as a passionate leader, funder through company CSR or other means, volunteer, enabler, awareness spreader, organizer, project manager, government body, functionary, elected representative or, just a responsible individual using less water ……

Water is the elixir of life for us and our planet and every living being.

A simple, but very eloquent and deep line from Russell Means, Oglala Lakota Nation (1939 –2012) sums it up

“Before I was six years old, my grandparents and my mother had taught me that if all the green things that grow were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all the four-legged creatures were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all the winged creatures were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all our relatives who crawl and swim and live within the earth were taken away, there could be no life. But if all the human beings were taken away, life on earth would flourish. That is how insignificant we are.”

Let’s put on a bigger hat and be part of the solution, because we can.