Tag: water crisis

Categories
India News Lite Blogs

Gunga village’s collective move to quench thirst

According to Sandhya Lodhi, who helps many villagers with water from her private borewell and also heads a women’s self-help group in the village, the villagers most time of their day in queues for water…reports Sanaveer Shafi

A pond project, jointly funded by the government, along with villagers’ effort, promises to put an end to the water woes of residents of Gunga, just 25km from the Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal.

The water crisis in Gunga, a village of 4,650 people, is so acute that people cannot take up any employment.

“If we go to work, then there will be no water in the house. If we manage to access water, we cannot go do our jobs,” Dharmendra Ahirwar said.

“I had to travel 3km to fetch this water,” Dharmendra said.

Explaining his travails, he said he has to balance eight jerry cans on an iron receptacle on his bicycle.

“Our village has been experiencing water scarcity for years. As temperatures rise, all sources of water dry up. The few hand pumps and tubewells that yield water work intermittently. Only two to four buckets of water flow out at a time, and then it all stops. To start the borewell again, one has to wait for at least 25 to 30 minutes.”

Housewife Nafisa Bi echoes his views, “Ever since I moved to this village after my marriage, I’ve witnessed water scarcity. I am 45 now. We appealed to the panchayat, sarpanch and every politician who has visited this village, but the water problem continues to this day.”

According to Sandhya Lodhi, who helps many villagers with water from her private borewell and also heads a women’s self-help group in the village, the villagers most time of their day in queues for water.

“The taps fixed under per the Nal Jal Yojana hardly yield any water. For the past 15 days, we have not received any water in our taps. Complaining to the panchayat has never helped.”

Over the years, the government has promised to install nearly a thousand taps and hand pumps, with at least one in every home in the village, under the Nal Jal Yojana. Villagers allege this promise has not been kept and the taps are at any rate not reliable because of the dire groundwater situation.

Housewife Smriti Kamleshwar complains, “I had to leave my cooking to queue up here for water. At times, we have to stay up all night for water. As for the taps set up under the scheme, the pressure is so low when they run that it’s not possible to even fill a bucket.”

Dry taps and low groundwater levels

Gunga has been battling water scarcity for 40 to 50 years, along with six other villages in its vicinity. Owing to the lack of any water resources in the village, the groundwater level is extremely low. This causes most hand pumps and tubewells to dry up in summer. Water is struck only at 450ft to 500ft depth; at times, it may even be as low as 700ft to 800ft.

In view of all these problems faced by the villagers, the district panchayat embarked on a project to dig up a 50,000 cubic metre pond in the village, using funds from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and the Amrit Sarovar Yojana. However, this proved inadequate to cover the Rs 21.4 lakh that was actually needed.

Bhopal District Panchayat CEO Rituraj Singh and his team set up a camp in the village and decided to reach out to its residents. The villagers willingly extended their cooperation, collecting funds to the tune of Rs 4.28 lakh, besides contributing tractors, trollies and excavators for the job. Soon, the project was underway.

“We selected the site for this pond, keeping in mind that there are villages downstream, on the recommendation of hydrological scientists. The land belongs to the Forest Department, and hence the necessary processes had to be followed,” Singh told 101Reporters.

“The new pond will recharge the groundwater, do away with people’s water woes here and also prevent hand pumps, borewells and tubewells from drying up every summer. We also intend to set up a park in the vicinity with a children’s play area and a picnic spot with benches, trees and flowering plants.”

The authorities, he added, planned to train villagers in pisciculture and water chestnut cultivation to improve livelihood opportunities. And after the monsoon, they further intend to impart skills related to maintaining the ecology of the pond, with the help of an NGO.

The local authorities plan to complete construction of the pond before the monsoon sets in.

“Right now, nearly 90 per cent is complete. The rest should be completed in another week,” Gunga Gram Panchayat Secretary Sumer Singh Rajput told 101Reporters. “The pond will relieve villagers of their water woes and help farmers access water to irrigate their farms, too.”

Optimism rules large

Farmer Gopal Singh Bhadoriya owns 10 acres of land. There are two borewells with a depth of 500ft to 900ft on his farm. However, these die out in summer. Now, he has quite a favourable outlook for this project, having contributed a tractor, trolley and 25l of diesel for it.

Similarly, farmer Arjun Singh, who also owns around 10 acres, said, “Lack of enough water limits me to produce just two crops a year with a lot of difficulty: soybean and wheat. With adequate water, I could produce two more crops annually: moong and garlic… The pond will help quench the thirst of wild animals, too, who roam in the forest adjacent to the village. Presently, lack of water drives many of them to their death.”

Farmer Nilesh Singh Rajput, who has 20 acres with four bore wells on the land, also contributed the services of his tractor and trolley for the project. “These bore wells dry up every summer. One has to queue up in the morning by the few private borewells that operate here in the dry weather, in the hope of receiving water by night. Even then, one cannot get more than two vessels of water.”

For these farmers, as with many other residents of the region, the pond holds hope for a better, stress-free existence, devoid of their water woes.

ALSO READ-MP farmers channel rainwater to turn marshland into irrigation pond

Categories
-Top News Asia News

Pak’s Karachi running dry

The worst affected are the economically backward masses, who can ill-afford to earn a decent living, let alone buy exorbitantly priced water tankers….reports Asian Lite News

“Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink”, has begun to hold true for Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city located along the Arabian Sea, with a host of famous beaches. Yet the city has apparently become parched due to decrease in the flow of the Indus River, which feeds its aquifers, besides the laxity on the part of the government to deal with the problem that is becoming intense with each passing day.

If the residents of Karachi are to be believed, water shortage has intensified so much over the past few years that the public has no choice, but to buy water from private contractors to fulfil their needs. This has given a fillip to the ‘tanker mafia’, which is minting money by charging monumental sums from the affected masses, who have warned of staging protests, if nothing is done soon to redress the issue.

The worst affected are the economically backward masses, who can ill-afford to earn a decent living, let alone buy exorbitantly priced water tankers. Going by residents’ accounts, water tankers cost as high as 5,000 PKR, leaving the financially challenged masses with no choice, but to arrange funds somehow to buy one for their survival.

“There is absolutely no water supply in the city. People are facing immense difficulty in performing daily chores including washing utensils, doing the laundry and even bathing,” said Mohammed Ahmed, another resident.

He added that there were a number of people, who were the sole breadwinners of large families and barely managed to earn around 15,000 PKR per month. “The situation is really hard for them to handle as they have to manage various other expenses too of their entire households,” he added.

“I came to live in Karachi three years ago. My family has bought a house here, but all these years we have never received any water supply,” said Mohammed Sayed, a resident.

He added that the water shortage is so grievous that the residents have no choice, but to purchase water tankers. “We are managing with the help of water tankers. A small ‘Mazda’ truck tanker costs 2,200 PKR and we use it for 15-20 days,” he added.

“No MNA or MP has ever contacted us. They just approach us around election time, asking for votes. They are nowhere to be seen thereafter,” maintained Mohammed Sayed.

“Karachi is facing extreme shortage of water. We appeal to the government to resolve issues related to its water supply at the earliest. God willing, we shall get justice, else the public will take to the roads and stage a wholehearted protest to oust the ‘tanker mafia’ and get the water supply restored,” said Nazakat Ali, another resident.

ALSO READ: Biden’s folly: Recreating Afghanistan in Ukraine

Categories
Environment Lite Blogs

Bengaluru to face acute shortage of drinking water

According to her, urbanization does not affect agricultural income and in some specifications, urbanization has actually led to increased agricultural income… reports Asian Lite News.

Expressing deep concerns about the findings of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, climate and socio-economic experts on Thursday observed that Bengaluru city will face acute drinking water shortage in the coming years.

Participating in a webinar entitled Responding to Climate Change: What should Karnataka and India do? that was organised by the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) here, Centre of Economic Studies and Policy, ISEC, Professor Krishna Raj highlighted the issue of high carbon economy that has resulted in rise of temperature by one degree Celsius, which in turn costed around 5 per cent of the GDP.

“If the same trend continues at such alarming levels in change of temperatures, Bengaluru city will face acute drinking water shortage in the coming years with the reduction in water availability in the Cauvery River basin mainly due to variation in precipitation levels,” he said.

He also cautioned that though India wants to increase its forest cover aimed at reducing CO2 levels by 2030, deficient climate finances may limit realising the climate targets.

“As per the Climate Policy Initiative on Global Climate Finance, 2019, 44 per cent and 56 per cent respectively constitute public and private finances. And the main concern is that about 93 per cent of the total public and private finances flow to mitigation activities and adaptation activities receive less than 7 per cent. Therefore, it would be difficult to achieve the desired results,” he said and added that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR 6 report has concluded that the Earth’s climate is getting so warm that temperatures in about a decade will probably go past the warning level.

Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources, ISEC’s Assistant Professor Balasubramaniam warned that in Karnataka, 65 per cent of the households were highly vulnerable to rising temperatures.

“Global warming’s worst affected population in Karnataka will belong to scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, elderly population, women, and children,” he said.

Centre for Research in Urban Affairs, ISEC Professor Kala S. Sridhar debunked the theory that urbanisation leads to global warming using time series data from World Development Indicators.

According to her, urbanization does not affect agricultural income and in some specifications, urbanization has actually led to increased agricultural income.

“Only way forward to reduce climate change is to increase the need to depend on renewable sources of energy and reduce vehicle emissions in cities by encouraging public transport,” she said.

Associate Professor, Centre for Research in Urban Affairs, ISEC Manasi said that over exploitation of ground water in peri urban areas given their positioning since they belong either to rural or urban areas, thus being vulnerable to climate change risks.

Drawing from a micro level study conducted on vulnerabilities in Karnataka, reference was made to land use change and groundwater overuse resulting in an increase in defunct borewells and negligence of water bodies. She also indicated the need for micro level studies for better understanding of local problems and finding innovative solutions to achieve Climate Action.

Economic Advisor to UP’s Chief Minister, who moderated the discussion Prof. K.V. Raju, in his remarks, stated that further empirical research studies are to be taken up for policy on mining, renewable resources given its importance in the current context.

ALSO READ-Water Crisis Looms Over India

READ MORE-Bengal Faces Water Crisis