When the rains fail Mar ‘of Indias problems are summed upin itsmismanagement of water. Nowa seanty monsoon has made matters much worse RENEE as mont encouraged He nia, a middle-aged member of the ‘Lambada tribe of southern Andhra Pra dash (a0), inspect hisone-acre (one are field. Some speckles of green, to show the red earth had held enough water for weeds to shoot, would have tempted him ‘sow ate Bit wars ars ‘monsoon rainy ‘season, the field. was parched and bare. finns egin, Hanya may sovIf not He gave the reply of peas ant farmers in India and poor, dry places teverywhere: “Only God knows.” Back in his village of Veeralapalam, lightskinned Lambadl farmers gathered Most had scattered some cotton or lent seed after the rain, But it had better rin Again: none had access to irrigation from 2 ddozen wells sunk 90 metresinto central ‘dlaslavabedrockby icher high caste Hi du farmers. A few expected to buy a dous ing or two of costly piped water, brought by the same neighbours ftom a nearby stormcteek Evenif affordable, said Saida ‘aya, this would not sustain his hoped: for acte of cotton. Without more rain it will fall, adding’ to his 225000-upe€ ($2500) debt-a big sur, when the dowry fora Lambadabrideis $1200. With no crop, no money and three daughters to marry off he would join the ‘only reliable flood in ar in these drought days of thousands of tough, skinny peas: Ants into Hyderabad, the state eaptal, in search of a day-wage. Asked what he would do there, Saidayanak pushed out his fists and shifted from foot foot, as if cycling a rickshaw-and laughter dituted the gloom, Many Indians share his worries ‘Around 450m lve off rain-fed agriculture, and this year’s monsoon rains, which be- tween June and September provide 80% of India's precipitation, have been the scant estin decades. Almost half Ina's 604 dis: tres are affected by drought, especially in the poorest and most populous sates such a: Bihar, which has declared drought in26 of its38 districts. Uttar Pradesh (UP), home toxssmexpecsitsmain ice harvest to be down by 60% The outlook for the winter wheat erop is also poor, with In- Gia's main reservots, a source for irrga tion canals one third below ther seasonal average. That also means less water for thirsty cites, including Delhi, where x8m people live and the water board meets ‘around half their demandin agood year. ‘Belated cloudburste in av and other states have brought relief But late sowing tends o produce a thin harvest. ar count fed some 20 farmer suicides last month, and there will be more. A shor rive from Hyderabad, Koteswara Kao watched as four Hindu outcasts and two biue horned bullocks ploughed hisas aces fg of them Teased) for cotton ft fails he will be let with a $4,000 debt and, being of lofty ‘aso, he said, he could never sweat it out asalabourer “Suicide would beeasier.” ‘Noone should stave, atleast. None of India’s previous five big postindepen dence droughts caused famine. And after to bumper years, the government saysit hhas enough wheat and rice instore 0 pre vent serious food grin price inflaton. With agriculture accounting for only 8% of spp, compared with 30% in 2990, the lin fact cause relatively litle e 0 Indias economy; it should stil {100 by over 5% this yer Lavish spending donruralwelfaresince2004, when the Con- f1ess party won power in Delhi, will also help. Almost 3om people have benefited from the governments chief public works project the National Rural Employment (Guarantee Scheme (xsi) Yet the drought underlines grim truth India’s extremes of hydrology. poverty and population present vast dfheuties for Water management which it has never mastered. And they are growing. Increas ingly fequent droughts may be a sign of this-ifas some think, climate change s blame. Iwill accentuate inda’s problems, with the monsoon rains, which supply ‘verso% of muchof India's annual precip tation injustas days, predicted to become ‘even more contracted and unpredictable.a 28. Briefing India’s water crisis » At the same time, the rapid melting of Hi: ‘malayan glaciers promises to deprive the great rivers of the Indian sub-continent, the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra, of their summertime source. This threatens a triple whammy: of longer dry seasons, in which these rivers do not flow, and more violent wet seasons. That would mean ‘more bad news for flood-prone eastern In- dia, including Bihar, where over 3m were displaced last year when the Kosi river bbursta crumbling embankment. India's water future was worrying even ‘without climate change. Despite daunting seasonal and regional variations, it should hhaveample water for agricultural,industr- alandhousehold use. But mostof tills in a remarlably short time, in the wrong places. India’s vast taskis therefore to trap and store enough water, o channel it to ‘where itis most needed: and, above all, 0 use it there a efficiently as possible. And ‘nail three counts, India fares badly. With ‘out huge improvements, according toa de- cade-old official estimate, by 2050, when its population will bea shade under bil lion, India willrun short of water. ‘There are already signs of the conflict this would cause. Having bickered for de- ceades over their rights tothe Krishna river, ‘ab and upstream Maharashtra and Karna taka are now furiously building dams and diversions thatthe river might not support even in flood. In Orissa 30,000 farmers= for whom over 80% of India’s water is re served-laid siege toa reservoir in 2007 to try to stop factories using its waters. The desert sate of Rajasthan has seen similar protests against the diversion of water to its growing cities. In one five farmers were shot dead by police The government is worried: “2050 is a very frightening sort of a picture,” says A.K Bajaj, chairman of India’s central wa: {er commission, which provides technical support to the state governments who con: tuol India's water, Is main solution is to bbuild more large dams (390 are under con: struction) andriver diversions.includinga Tong-mooted extravaganza of 30 linkages which would unite most of india’ river basins. Indeed, India needs more water storage:ithas 200 cubie metres per person, ‘compared with 000 cubie metres in Chi nna. But given the decrepitude of much of its existing water infrastructure, and its profligate ways with water, its more urgent Priorities are to repairand reform. Worshipping old gods Famine-prone for most of its history, In dia’s attachment to dams is understand able. Its ability to feed itself owes much to splurge on big dams and canal projects in the 1950s-7osfor example, the colossal Bhakra dam in Himachal Pradesh, com pleted in 1963 and described by the then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, as a “new temple” of India. The Bhakra v ‘brought 7m hectares of north-west India, chiefly Punjab and Faaryana, under irigs: tion, This prepared the way for the Green Revolution of the 1960s, when the intro duction of new seeds and chemical fertiis ‘ers hugely boosted farm yields in those slates and in the coastal region of ar— which was irrigated in the 19th century by British engineer, Sir Arthur Cotton, who isstil worshipped there asa god. But, the world over, without expensive ‘maintenance to prevent siltation in reser voirs and leakage from canals, grand dams and itrgation schemes tend to be as inefi cient as they are environmentally destruc: tive. And India’s corrupt, underfunded and overmanned state ixrigation depart rments-ur's, for example, employs over 300,000 people-often provide no mainte nance at all. Asa result, each year India is estimated to lose the equivalent of two- thirds of the new storage it builds to silt ation. Bad planning, often asa result of in terstaterivalries,causes more waste. Thus, peed Loses in ra sna oe Eeedonotace between 1992 and 2004 India built 200 large and mediumsized irrigation pro jects-and the area irrigated by such schemes shrank by 3.2m hectares. ‘The village of Veeralapalam offers a snapshot ofthis, and ofthe lasers in a po litical economy where water is the main currency, From the early 1960s it received ‘occasional water in a small canal, at the tailend of a system off the Krishna river. But this has been dry sinceso8s because of leakage up‘channel and, the Lambadt farmers sa illegal tapping by members of a more favoured community. The canal ‘was re-dug last year under the NREGS, but seems unlikely togetany water, ‘Afew miles up-channel in Ulisaipalam, 4 village dominated by high caste Hindus, there is water, but more problems. Wading shin-deep, PB. Venkat Reddy transplants dark green paddy into his two acres of ier gated, but undrained, land. When there is ‘water in the canal, for around four months each year itis waterlogged, ft only for pad: ‘dy Butin recent years the canal has heldin sufficient water fora full paddy eropfore ing Mr Reddy to. supplement it with ‘groundwater. He pumps this, with electric: ity given free to farmersin ar, froma bore hole drilled 45 metres into his land, Since the 970s, when affordable water pumps became available and electricity reached many mote places, millions have done the same. Indiais the world'sbiggest use of groundwater, with some 20m bore- holes providing water for over 60% ofitsir rigated area. Being entirely in farmers’ hands, this i up to three times more pro- ductive than canal irigation. In 2002, by a conservative estimate, it was worth $8 bil lion a year to the Indian economy—more than four times what the central and state governments spend on irrigation schemes. Groundwater irrigation has trans formed thelives of millions. thas also rec: tified problems, of waterdogging and sali nation, caused by canals. But in many places, including productive Punjab and Haryana, whose rather well-off farmers also get free or cu-price electricity, the rate ff groundwater extraction is unsustain: able. Nearly a third of India's groundwater blocks were defined in 2004 as “riical, semicritical orover-exploited”. The World Bankreckons thatss% of India'sfoodis pro- duced by *mining"-or unrenewable ex- traction of~groundwater,includingins8 of Punjab’s 20 districts. Satellite maps re leased by America’s Nasa last month showed that north-western India’s aqui fers had fallen by a foot a year between 22002 and 2008: a loss of 109 cubic km (26 cubic miles) of water, or three times the volume of America’s biggest man-made Thisis storing up trouble. As bore-holes run dry, as those aver the hardrock aqui fers of southerncental India do on a ‘monthly basis, many poor people may be »>ici ——_————_ » deprived of safe drinking water. Currently, 220m Indians lack this. Not all India’s groundwater is potable anyway; in places, itis getting seriously polluted. And India’s groundwater reserves will be especially ‘missed when climate change makes sur face-water sources even more sporadic. ‘Their depletion will accentuate this, with springs, which couldhave provided atrick Te of survoff during the extended dry sea sons, increasingly failing Pump and be damned ‘Some excuse this resolute destruction by saying that India’s farmers do not under- stand groundwater. But they know when it sunning out, as an impromptu conclave in the Punjabi village of Lubana Teku showed. "Punjab will becomea desert like Rajasthan,” said Jarnail Singh, a stately, orange turbaned grower of rice. When Mr Singh began pumping groundwater in 2973, turning his 14 acres from cotton to paddy it took a three horsepower engine to bring it up from 25 metres. Now the groundwater is 20 metres down, and hee Guires a5 horsepower pump to sluice his sreen paddy fields. ‘We know the water is going."said Mr Singh. "But we're not going To change our ways unless the government makes us” Rather, it encourages him to keep pumping. Besides paying nothing for his Water or electicity~seven hours of it a dayMr Singh knows the government will buy all the rice he can grow, at a pre-or dained “minimum support price”. Set against this package, Punjab’s efforts to conserve its groundwater, mainly by tell ing farmers not to transplant paddy before the monsoon rains, te rather puny, State governments know that this is madness. Over a quarter of India’s elec ttiity is given free or cut-price to farmers. ‘As a result, the state power utilities are bust. Understandably, however, polit cians balk at reform, Two chief ministers recently tried charging farmers fr electric: ity in av and Madhya Pradesh, and were kicked out of office, The Congress party chief minister of Haryana, which is going to the polls in October. will not make that mistake. He is demanding $200m from In- dia's Congress-led central government asa contribution to Haryana's agricultural power subsidy. ‘The subsidy rj is not confined to farm ers. Many municipal governments price water well below cost, and therefore stug ale to supply it. Delhi, where the water board's revenues cover only 40% of its op- crating costs, should have plenty of water. Te draws 220 litres per citizen, more than Paris. But half of it disappears from leaky pipes. fomendthese, workmen, havingno Underground maps, must dig up and sift through a tangled mass of pipes and ca bles, like untrained surgeons. manhan- dling intestines. Predictably. for a couple of hundred tu pees a month, posh south Delhi gets the best water supply. When its taps run dry, the locals, including India's politcal and bureaucraticelite, pump groundwater—of- ten illegally. By one estimate, bore-holes provide 40% of the capital's water: and South Delhi's groundwater, which under: lies the offices of India’s Central Ground: water Authority is being depleted by upto three metres a year. But tube-wells, which cost around $600, ae no option for Delhi's poor, including 4m sum: dwellers, To aug: ‘ment their supply they must buy water, of dubious quality and atextortionate pices, froma welhconnected water mafia Infiery June residents of Sangam Vihar, ‘poor suburb of south Delhi, rioted after getting no water fortwo weeks. In normal ‘An increasingly precious toad times, according to Vishnu Sharma, 8.36: year-old resident, he and his family e- Ceive, at unpredictable times, around an hhour and a half of muddy piped water each week. They pay $2 for this, he sa and another §20, ora quarter of hisfactory wage, 1 private watersellers in cahoots with corrupt water-board officials. “So why bother complaining?” he said angrily. ‘Who could deny that rich Delhites ‘must pay mare for water, so the city's poor can getmare? The ich, of course. In 2005 8 World Bank-sponsored effort toreform the water board was shot down by local Nos. As well as worrying, reasonably, about the bidding process for contracts, they were outraged to discover that, im re turn for round-the-clock clean water, the targeted households would be charged about $20 a month~or what Mr Sharma payshislocal water don. Pay more, use less ‘To make farmers use less water, they must ‘pay. or pay more, for electricity The longer State governments wait toinstitut this the higher the cost of pumping groundwater will gomand the more difficult reform be- comes. Nori pricing alone a panacea, Ac cording toa World Bank study, farmers are already paying rather a lot for subsidised ‘but poor-quality electricity. In Haryana, farmers with electricity spent as% of theit incomes on it and on repairing burn-out ump-engines; those without electricity spent 31% of their incomes on diesel. To charge farmers morefor electricity, utilities will have to improve supply. And farmers ‘mustlearn tose water more eficently. Selling groundwater to eitis, as farm cersoutside Chennai have done, sone pos sible answer. Another, o keep up India's food production, isto spread the use of modern seeds and other technologies such as an improved system of paddy cul tivation that uses half as much water and thas boosted yields in Tamil Nadu and ar. Ideally, commercial cultivation of thirsty ‘sugar-eane and paddy should also be shift ‘edeastwards,to the poor andsodden parts of Bihar and West Bengal. For now, alas, the politcal trade-offs and mammoth in frastructure development this would re quite male itseem unimaginable. Farmers on aid, rain-fed land need help of other sorts, Even if they had elec: triety-which 4oom Indians do not-they could hardly pay for it. Nor would it be al together desirable for them to pump groundwater unless they could be en joined to sow appropriate crops, such as pulses and millet, and water them wisely. Indry azeas, where profligate water-use by fone farmer can make many wells run dry, farmers have heen persuaded to share in formation on rainfall, groundwater levels and cropping, and so collectively regulate themselves. One attempt a this in central Aap involves 25,000 farmers, ‘And india musthave more dams. These need not be large; indeed, given problems of maintenance andresettlement,itwould be better if they were not. For these and other reasons, most experts also seem to want the ambitious tiver basin linkage Idea tobe scrapped. In most places, urban and rural, India’s state governments ‘would do hetterto concentrate on building and restoring millions of small water stor ‘ages, anks and mini-reservoirs, and putlo- cal governments in charge of them. There iso simple solution to India's complicat ced water crisis. Butif prayers arenecessary, let them be offered in small shrines, not vvastconeretetemples.