Rome declaration on Water Scarcity

FAO and partners of Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) adopted the declaration
WASAG initiative was launched at the United Nations Climate Conference in Marrakesh, in 2016
Adopted in the annual FAO's World Food Forum (WFF) in Rome from October 14 - 18.
Theme:

Good food for all, for today and tomorrow

Also launched Global Family Farming Forum by FAO and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Water Stress in Bharat and Government yojanas

Atal Bhujal Yojana

Aims to arrest decline in ground water level through community led sustainable groundwater management
Being implemented in 8,200+ water stressed gram panchayats of Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY)

Aimed to enhance physical access of water on farm and expand cultivable area under assured irrigation, improve on farm water use efficiency and introduce sustainable water conservation practices.
2 major components
1. Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme
2. Har Khet Ko Pani

Ground water management and regulation scheme

Regular ground water level and quality monitoring along with annual quality and resource assessment
National Aquifer Mapping and Management
Regulation and control of ground water withdrawal in states and UTs
Demonstrative recharge projects in selected water stressed areas.

Facts

among industrial sectors, coal-based power plants and steel-makers were most vulnerable to water stress in India - Moody's Ratings, June 2024

Government data shows the per capita availability of water fell from around 5,000 cubic metre in 1950 to around 1,500 cubic metre in 2020.

2023 vulnerability assessment by the Ministry of Power’s Central Electricity Authority showed India’s major power grids were dependent on 14 major river basins — all of which are under ‘high water stress’.

2021 study by the Delhi-based NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) showed coal power plants account for about 70 percent of industrial water withdrawal in the country

Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Delhi based think tank

by 2025, 11 of 15 major river basins in India will be experience water stress — annual per capita availability of less than 1700 cubic metre per person

Ganga, Subarnarekha, Krishna, Mahi and Tapi — are already experiencing water scarcity, with an annual per capita availability of less than 1000 cubic metre per person.

Three others — Cauvery, Pennar and Sabarmati — are facing absolute water scarcity, with annual per capita availability of less than 500 cubic metre per person.

Example

Mine water utilisation by Ministry of Coal

treating water collected in mine sumps for irrigation and drinking.

Parameters monitored to ensure basic standard of water quality

pH,
total suspended solids (TSS),
total dissolved solids (TDS),
chemical oxygen demand (COD),
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD),
oil and grease

Ways forward

building new water reservoirs
investing in water treatment plants
rainwater harvesting systems to feed the industrial plants
reusing water to limit wastage
zero liquid discharge or reusing effluents from cities to minimise freshwater use
reuse and recirculation of water within the steel manufacturing process
desalination — the process of removing salt from seawater — can also be explored and scaled up for plants along the coastline
ensure the scale-up of cooling tower technology that can reduce their dependence on water
explore adoption of dry cooling technology that uses a negligible amount of water

Water Stress and Reuse

In southern India alone, water reservoirs were at 15 per cent of their capacity in early May, below the average of the last 10 years.

NITI Aayog estimates that the national water demand will be twice the available supply by 2030.

Domestic wastewater or used water: Almost 80 per cent of the water supplied to city dwellers is later released after use from kitchens, toilets, bathing, and washing activities.

According to an analysis by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Indian cities will generate over 30 billion cubic metres of domestically used water by 2030.

In 2021, Indian cities generated over 72,000 million litres of used water (domestic sewage) per day, of which only 28 per cent was actually treated.

CEEW has developed a first-of-its-kind municipal index to evaluate the performance of urban local bodies (ULBs) in used water management

Bengaluru reuses about 50 per cent of its treated water for industrial purposes, construction activities, horticulture, and landscaping.

no ULB has achieved full scores on the index, indicating significant room for improvement across India.

One reason is the lack of financial planning—90 per cent of these urban local bodies have low investment priorities and cost recovery for operating and maintaining the wastewater infrastructure.

Surat directed over 92 per cent of its consolidated investment towards sewage and septage management from 2015 to 2020. It is also recovering the cost of used water treatment by selling treated water to manufacturing industries for reuse.

414 out of the 503 ULBs assessed don’t reuse any of their treated water (which is discharged into local water bodies) or do not have any functional treatment infrastructure.

over 65 per cent of ULBs assessed struggle with the public availability of municipal data.

ULB-level water reuse plans can leverage initiatives of existing national missions, such as AMRUT 2.0 and National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), that focus on water security and pollution abatement through effective used water management.

business models of Vishakhapatnam and Udaipur, wherein bulk private users like industries are roped in to finance advanced used water treatment and maximise reuse.

Water crisis in South India