Comment on Rural India runs dry as thirsty megacity Mumbai sucks water
Lovstuhagen@hilariouschaos.com 2 weeks ago
India’s government-run NITI Aayog public policy centre forecasts a “steep fall of around 40 percent in freshwater availability by 2030”, in a July 2023 report.
It also warned of “increasing water shortages, depleting groundwater tables and deteriorating resource quality”.
Groundwater resources “are being depleted at unsustainable rates”, it added, noting they make up some 40 percent of total water supplies.
It is a story repeated across India, said Himanshu Thakkar, from the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, a Delhi-based water rights campaign group.
This is “typical of what keeps happening all over the country”, Thakkar said, adding it represents everything “wrong with the political economy of making dams in India”.
“While projects are planned and justified in the name of drought-prone regions and its people, most end up serving only the distant urban areas and industries,” he said.
Truly, India needs to rapidly supply water to these areas, perhaps with massive desalination projects like they do in the Gulf region, where areas like Riyadh have 7 million people dependent on water pumped in from the cost.
ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Desalination is horrible for the local marine life though. Less people might be a better option, but impossible to implement short-term.
Lovstuhagen@hilariouschaos.com 2 weeks ago
Right, I just looked and saw there are some conflicting ideas about this.
The brine issues seem quite abd:
Scientific American
It’s quite a complex issue.
IndiBrony@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m sure Pakistan would be happy to help 👀