A disaster in the making, India's water crisis will be historic.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/india-water-crisis/feature-indias-worst-water-crisis-in-history-leaves-millions-thirsty-idUKL8N1TM2XR"From the northern Himalayas to the sandy, palm-fringed beaches in the south, 600 million people - nearly half India’s population - face acute water shortage, with close to 200,000 dying each year from polluted water...
Water pollution is a major challenge, the report said, with nearly 70 percent of India’s water contaminated, impacting three in four Indians and contributing to 20 percent of the country’s disease burden.
Yet only one-third of its wastewater is currently treated, meaning raw sewage flows into rivers, lakes and ponds - and eventually gets into the groundwater.
The head of WaterAid India VK Madhavan said the country’s groundwater was now heavily contaminated.
“We are grappling with issues, with areas that have arsenic contamination, fluoride contamination, with salinity, with nitrates,” he said, listing chemicals that have been linked to cancer.
The level of chemicals in the water was so high, he said, that bacterial contamination – the source of water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid - “is in the second order of problems”.
Crippling water problems could shave 6 percent off India’s gross domestic product, according to the report by the government think-tank, Niti Aayog.
“This 6 percent of GDP is very much dependent on water. Our industry, our food security, everything will be at stake,” said Mishra.
“It is a finite resource. It is not infinite. One day it can (become) extinct,” he said, warning that by 2030 India’s water supply will be half of the demand."