India’s water security at great risk in era of climate change, says CSE

The potential for climate change and global warming to threaten India’s water security, said Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based non-profit. This statement was made March 22, which is celebrated worldwide as World Water Day.

India is witnessing a repeat of 2021 conditions, when temperatures touched 40 degrees Celsius as early as February in some parts of the country.

“What does this intense heat wave that has hit large parts of India so early this summer really mean? It means — especially today, as we mark the World Water Day — that this is the age of climate change; it also means that how we deal with our water in the coming days will determine whether we would survive such extreme climatic conditions,” Sunita Narain, director-general, CSE, said in a statement.

She added: “I am saying this because we all know that climate change impacts are about heat — increased and scorching temperatures — and about variable and extreme rain. Both have a direct connection to the water cycle. Therefore, climate change mitigation has to be about water and its management.”

“And this was when 2021 was the year of the La Niña — the Pacific water currents that are known to bring cooler temperatures globally. Indian weather scientists have informed that global warming has offset this cooling effect of La Niña,” Avantika Goswami, deputy programme manager, climate change, CSE, said.

CSE researchers said the rising heat had severe implications for water security. It would lead to greater evaporation of waterbodies.

“It means that we need to work not just on storing water in millions of structures, but also plan for reducing losses due to evaporation. It is not that evaporation losses did not happen in the past, but the rate of evaporation will now increase with the soaring temperatures,” Narain said.

One option is to build underground water storage or wells. According to CSE, India’s irrigation planners and bureaucracies have largely depended on canals and other surface water systems. They should not ignore the management of groundwater.

The soils can become dry from increased heat. It will make the soil dusty and increase irrigation. It will increase land degradation and dustbowl formations, especially in India, which has the largest food production.

This means that water management must be accompanied by vegetation planning in order for soils to retain water, even in extreme heat, the non profit noted.

Third, heat will drive up the use of water — from drinking and irrigation, to fighting fires in forests or buildings. Already, there have been devastating forest fires in many parts of the country and in India.

As the temperatures rise, so will this demand for water. The demand for water will increase with climate change, making it even more imperative that water as well as wastewater are not wasted, CSE said.

According to the thinktank, this is just one example. Climate change is already affecting the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events. This means that one can expect rain to come as a flood, making the cycle of floods followed by droughts even more intense.

India has already had fewer rainy days per year. It rains an average of 100 hours per year. The number of rainy day will continue to decrease, but the number of extreme rainy days may increase.

This will have a huge impact on India’s plans for water management. It means that the country needs to think more about flood management, not only to embank rivers but to optimise the floodwaters so that they can be stored in underground and overground aquifers — wells and ponds.

This also means that India needs to plan differently for capturing rainwater. Currently, the country’s water structures, many millions of which are being constructed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, for instance, are designed for normal rainfall.

However, extreme rains will become the norm and the structures will need a redesign to ensure they can withstand the seasons. CSE stated that every drop of water must now be captured in the age of climate change.

“Let’s then be clear; we needed to be obsessive about water and its management yesterday because water is the basis of health and wealth. But now we need to be more than obsessive — we need to be determined and deliberate. On this World Water Day in the age of climate change, we need to know that the water agenda is the real make or break of our future,” Narain said.