Event Details
Date & Time: November 18, 2021; 5:00pm to 6:00pm IST
Topic: India’s Urban Water Crisis
Platform: Zoom
Speaker: Thomas Varghese, Researcher and Consultant, Sustainable Development, Kochi.
Discussant: Dr. Suparana Katyaini, Assistant Professor, School of Livelihoods and Development, TATA Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad.
Moderator: Dr Reetika Syal, Senior Officer, Research, CPPR.
Highlights
Speaker : Thomas Varghese
- Began by highlighting the two sides to the water crisis in Urban India- Urban flooding and Urban drought.
- 50-60% of water accessed in our cities comes from groundwater sources and the rest from surface water sources.
- The Composite Water Management Index released by NITI Ayog in 2019 stated that 21 cities in India were at the brink of groundwater exhaustion.
- Major challenges faced by groundwater and surface water sources in India
- Unplanned urbanisation and lack of sustainable urban planning leading to corrosion of natural infrastructure
- Water pollution through solid waste disposal and untreated industrial effluents
- Water crisis needs to be viewed as a cross-sectoral issue. If there are no appropriate or efficient solid waste management systems, people tend to use water bodies as dumping grounds.
- Need a paradigm shift in approaching Urban water crisis:
- Unplanned urbanisation to Sustainable urban planning
- Water extraction to Water conservation
- Synergy in Policy and Governance
- Passive observers to Active citizens
- A two pronged approach to ensuring Sustainable solutions to urban water crisis:
- Conserving natural infrastructure (Was explained using the case of Catskill Watershed in New York)
- Investing in Man made infrastructure
- Understand the value of natural infrastructure and combine the traditional wisdom of water conservation with that of modern science.
Speaker : Dr. Suparna Katyaini
- Data sharing on water resources has led to preparation of multiple indices on water resources in the last two decades.
- Dependency on groundwater in India for drinking needs and irrigation and in case of disasters as urban flooding leads to pollution of surface water.
- Need to understand the interconnectedness of the water crisis in India.
- When talking about urban flooding we are talking not just about water policies but also about disaster management policies.
- More frequent flooding as a consequence of climate change and the need to work around the theme of cities’ resilience- learning from each event of flooding to reduce damage and using systemic approach based on the interconnections
- Need to bring more synergy between scientists and policymakers
Report by Aswati Prakash, Research Intern, CPPR
In case you missed it, watch the event video recording here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=398254912000225