The Indus Valley provides a fascinating and disturbing example of what geopolitics, colonisation, finance and climate can do to a region. This vulnerable land, which the British transformed with philosophy, canals, land and tax reforms into what it is today - a fault-line between two nuclear nations. Today, with tensions rising, the question asked is “can the tap on the Indus waters be turned off?”
Case Study 1: Madhya Pradesh Given the effort to shift all the necessary pieces of the water management equilibrium, governments shift what they can – often only one or two pieces. But, moving some, but not other pieces, can have unforeseen consequences. Such was the case in Madhya Pradesh (MP), the poster-child of sound water …
Continue reading What can we do about India’s water crisis – Part 2/5
The Niti Aayog Composite Water Management Index states, “54% of India’s groundwater wells are declining, and 21 major cities are expected to run out of groundwater as soon as 2020, affecting ~100 million people.” While some claim the situation is not quite so dire, such a strong statement from the leading government policy thinktank cannot …
(This first appeared in Firstpost on Aug 08, 2018: https://www.firstpost.com/india/indias-water-crisis-tracing-the-countrys-history-of-water-management-and-crucial-destructive-shifts-in-policy-4895721.html) India's water crisis: Tracing the country's history of water management and crucial, destructive shifts in policy This past week, I, like many parents across the country, was revising history with my son for his test, which happened to be on the kingdom of Mesopotamia. More …
Continue reading India’s Water Crisis. Part 1. How did we get here?
(Image courtesy: Flickr/Sandeep Achetan) (This effort was also carried by the Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/society/when-your-actions-speak-how-much-you-love-your-city-and-care-for-the-environment/article19587578.ece) As a society, we equate size with quality. Bigger the better. This belief has even come to our faith and our festivals. Take the Ganesh Chaturthi. In countless households across India, families welcome Ganesh into their homes in the form of a clay …
Summer is a supercharged time in the South. For one, its hot. The one degree of global warming is palpable in May, where the temperature often skips above 40°C. For another, it is dry. The past year has been one of the driest in the past hundred and forty years. In Madurai, we have our …
Ground water levels have been falling continuously in many parts of the country. The first question to ask is are we taking water from the groundwater (aquifer) in a safe way — in a way that allows it to recharge. In many parts of the country, the answer is “No”. The second question is the groundwater levels …
Continue reading India. Water. Do we have a problem? Yes. Can we something? Yes.
(Image from thehindu.com) Time to spend money and attention on adaptation Price water. Please. We do not have the luxury to waste water on growing low-yielding rice varieties and sustaining 300 million cows & buffaloes. However, the current machinery extracts significant rent from crises. Emergencies give procedural checks and balances a go-bye making an already leaky …
Continue reading Two glaring symptoms of global warming: Drought & Heatwaves
All Good Things… We now come to the conclusion of the series - our exploration of what climate change is, what it will mean for India and importantly, what we can do. Climate change is much more than a 1°C increase in temperature. A consistently warmer temperature fundamentally alters the way air holds moisture: warmer …
Climaction 