New Delhi: In the past few weeks, heavy rains have lashed several states in India paralysing daily routine and transportation. In many areas, national highways are resembling rivers and giant trees have fallen to ground.
In Uttar Pradesh, more than 100 people lost their lives in incessant rains. Death toll is significant in states like Bihar, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh too. Hyderabad recorded the heaviest rain in 100 years in September. Mumbai also got the second highest rainfall in the last 60 years. People of Delhi have not seen such heavy rains in the last 25 years. While Patna and about a dozen districts in Bihar are still flooded, rains in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka show no signs of stopping. But where is the water flooding homes, roads and everything else going?
India saves only 8 percent of rainwater every year. As a result, 60 crore people face water scarcity during summer. Like Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said, India does not have shortage of water, but the management of water is not adequate.
Chennai faced the worst water crisis 4 months ago at a time when Mumbai and Nasik were inundated. Such contradictory weather patterns are a commonplace in the recent years. While some parts of the country are hit by drought, some other parts are flooded.
India, which has several climate zones is at risk of losing 68 percent cultivable land to drought and 5 crore hectares of land to floods. Governments must tackle this climate cycle.
70 years ago, per capita water availability in our country was 5,177 cubic metres. According to Ministry of Water Resources, the per capita availability in 2011 fell to 1,545 cubic metres and may drastically fall further to 1,341 cubic metres by 2021.