India Soon to Face Day Zero; Bengaluru, Hyderabad And 20 Major Cities to Run Out of Groundwater by 2020: NITI Aayog

As per a report by NITI Aayog, Bengaluru will be soon among one of the 11 cities in the world to run out of ground water. The report states that Day Zero will hit Bengaluru and 20 other major cities in India by the year 2020.

Bengaluru, June 18: As per a report by NITI Aayog, Bengaluru will be soon among one of the 11 cities in the world to run out of ground water. The report states that Day Zero will hit Bengaluru and 20 other major cities in India by the year 2020. The other cities which are likely to follow right in the footsteps of Bengaluru is New Delhi and Hyderabad. More than 100 million people are likely to get affected by water scarcity.

After BBC News released a report stating and warning India about water scarcity in the years to come, NITI Aayog came up with a consolidated list which is part of the report titled ‘Composite Water Management Index: A Tool for Water Management 2017’. The report stated- “Although 93 per cent of India’s urban population has access to basic water, there are still sharp inter-city and intra-city inequities. Further, supply gaps are causing city dwellers to depend on privately extracted ground water, bringing down local water tables. In fact, by 2020, 21 major cities, including Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, are expected to reach zero groundwater levels, affecting access for 100 million people.”

Taking a look at the report for the same for the year 2016-17, it can be seen that Gujarat topped the report’s Composite Water Management Index while Jharkhand performed the worst. As per the 2016-17 report, only three states – Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh recorded a good score and managed their water resources well.

While agriculture producing states like – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana did not fare well and hence needs to checked upon more for the current year. To combat the water scarcity in the coming years, NITI Aayog has come up with some measures-

Establishing a ‘Composite Water Management Index’ for the country which will help establish a public, national platform providing information on key water indicators across states, incentive-based mechanisms for groundwater restoration and consumption slab based tariffs. In order to avert a Cape Town like situation, respective state governments must build supply networks and limit private groundwater access to ensure sustainable water use in cities.