Water crisis in India
NITI Aayog in India (the new avatar of Planning commission) predicted in 2018 that 21 major Indian cities would run out of groundwater as early as 2020; and more than 600 million people living in the states with lower water management would be impacted.
The best validation of this prediction is that a big city like Chennai ran out of its entire ground water table in 2019. So the need of the hour is
decentralised water resource management:
- Water harvesting in all cities
- Watershed management in all rural areas
- Water budgeting and prudent utilisation of water by each person.
Paani Foundation is working towards these goals by creating a citizen run movement through the use of gamification - a water harvesting competition between villages to win the 'Satyamev Jayate Water Cup'. For this to bear results, they empower the villagers in the art of watershed management by providing training to select set of volunteers from each village entering the contest. This approach has seen big success and resulted in a huge water harvesting across the state of Maharashtra. The participating villages have seen their water problems readdressed by implementing the techniques taught in the training.
I hope such innovative ideas (like gamification after providing training) to motivate citizens to own the responsibility of water conservation in their villages is replicated across India. This is only possible if state governments can take up this approach by themselves and replicate Paani foundation's success in their state.
- Water harvesting in all cities
- Watershed management in all rural areas
- Water budgeting and prudent utilisation of water by each person.
Paani Foundation is working towards these goals by creating a citizen run movement through the use of gamification - a water harvesting competition between villages to win the 'Satyamev Jayate Water Cup'. For this to bear results, they empower the villagers in the art of watershed management by providing training to select set of volunteers from each village entering the contest. This approach has seen big success and resulted in a huge water harvesting across the state of Maharashtra. The participating villages have seen their water problems readdressed by implementing the techniques taught in the training.
I hope such innovative ideas (like gamification after providing training) to motivate citizens to own the responsibility of water conservation in their villages is replicated across India. This is only possible if state governments can take up this approach by themselves and replicate Paani foundation's success in their state.
Decentralised water resource management is the only sure shot way out of this impending disaster.
References:
References:
- https://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/new_initiatives/presentation-on-CWMI.pdf
- http://social.niti.gov.in/uploads/sample/water_index_report2.pdf
- https://niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2019-06/Final%20Report%20of%20the%20Research%20Study%20on%20%20Composite%20Water%20Resources%20Management%20Index%20for%20Indian%20States%20conducted%20by%20Dalberg%20Global%20Development%20Advisors%20Pvt.%20Ltd_New%20Delhi.pdf
- https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/india-facing-worst-water-crisis-in-history-says-niti-aayog-report-1867755
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