India's water crisis

When the rains fail

Many of India’s problems are summed up in its mismanagement of water. Now a scanty monsoon has made matters much worse

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Readers' comments



India's water problems are as deep rooted as its political woes. The world thinks that India's developing by leaps and bounds. One close look at the essentials in this country and the truth is more apparent that Pamela Anderson's assets.

India's challenge in the future will not be growth --- the real challenge will be in basic necessities like drinking water, food to eat and maybe shelter.

Till the time India's money / power / limelight hungry yet uneducated and uncouth politicians (Mayawati is a brilliant example) do not give a thought to this aspect, we are looking at a very grim future for India's millions.

And its not too far in the future.

AB ve

As long as Indians don't solve their social problems no amount of technology advancement or economic policy can help them.

The poor farmer must rise up against dowry and other social evils. If he piles up debt for marrying daughters or to commemorate occasions like birth and death, no one can help him. I have heard that if someone dies in their family, they have to offer lunch to the whole village and a dozen priest . They take a debt for that.

Unfortunately, no one in India is willing to raise voice against social evils. This also gives the religious fundamentalist a free hand in Indian social life.

Add to this the ambivalent attitude towards finding and adapting technology based solutions. The best example of this are the hopeless website of govt run institutions.


In order for India to successfully deal with it's water issue it needs to clamp down hard on the rampant corruption at levels of society. The State and/or Central government's can pass all the legislation they want but if it isn't abided by and wholistically enforced then it is all for not.

Government subsidies that shield the consumer from the true market cost of the commodity that they consume leads to dependence and loss. Water and electricity need to be provided at market rates and the margin generated should be reinvested into the underlying infrastructure.


Climate Change will indefinatly be a factor in the future in regards to India's water supply. In order to lessen the burden of a depleating water supply and more greenhouse gases, a policy of giving out contraception to the rural poor and family planning may be more important than any dam or well.


A very informative article and I’d hope that this could be made into a series to cover other regions poor and rich in water resources.

The water problem is not India’s alone, much of the rest of South Asia and in fact China whose per capita water resources is only about a quarter of world’s average are having water problems to deal with.

The world should be thankful that both India and China are self sufficient for food crops, accounting for about 2,478 millions of people for now. That helps to stablize international market prices and frees international communities to concentrate their precious relieve efforts to other regions in desperate need.

Three major issues standout for politicians and experts in my view:

1. The excessive pumping of underground water and the inordinate damming, with dire consequences of geological disasters to come, are alarming.

2. The lack of effective management means for cycles of extreme disparities between draughts and floods.

3. The education of water conservation in daily living as well as in farming, mining and manufacturing.


great article which must be forwarded to our policy makers sitting in the Air conditioned rooms and in Lutiney's bunglows while ruling our country.

Politicians heading state like UP lack basic sense of service towards the people who have elected them to the post. They are more interested in putting their own idols at the cost of exchequer by using the taxpayers hard earned money. They must understand what ever they are doing, they are doing at their own peril and they are also answerable.

The government alone is not responsible for the mismanagement of water resources. However the present govt. must move ahead with all zeal on the preconceived project of linking the rivers of india. Focus on the water management must be at the District level functionaries. JNNRUM, a flagship and a wonderful programme of Govt of India must take care of the Water Management System at Grassroot level.

Rotary International has this year has made one of its theme as Water Harvesting. Govt of India must support Rotary Clubs in India in guiding and implementing this innovative programme of Water Harvesting, so that the problem of water scarcity could be mitigated to some extent.

Proper education at Primary and above level should be given to our little children as also to our responsible society regarding the evils of excessive use and wastage of Water.

Much awaited agricultural reforms in the light of changing economic and technology sector must be implemented so that the basic needs of both farmers and farming are taken due care. Govt must complete this race in time. Politicians need to have a soft heart and iron hand for implementing the desired policies.

May God make them wiser.


India is losing ground water fast thanks to free electricity provided to farmers who use it to pump water from aquifers. One side effect has been arsenic poisoning in Bengal. The government must stop providing electricity for free. Also, instead of grand plans like connecting rivers, large ponds and lakes can be dug up to collect rain water. That will solve the problems of drinking water as well as water for farming.

India must also radically change farming method. Currently its yield per acre of rice, wheat, oilseed etc are one-third of developed nations. With changed method, much fewer workers will be needed for farming. The massive number of surplus workers will have to be relocated to urban areas. I have detailed these in


the article does a good job of summarising all the issues involved with India's burgeoning water crisis, but these, to be honest, are pretty well rehearsed and widely known in the country.

What is more difficult is to think intelligently about solutions that are both technically and politically feasible. The article begins to ramble a bit incoherently when it gets to this point, ending sentimentally with a rather weak and mawkish "let prayers be offered in small shrines and not big temples".

The water crisis will force both central and state governments to act sooner or later. There is no doubt that improving the storage, treatment, transmission and distribution of water is absolutely central to solving the problem on a large scale at a technical level. Whether taxpayers pay for this or users do is slightly second order - while do think a measure of pricing reform will be useful, water is more a basic right and the government needs to make sure that people are not deprived of it if they cannot pay.

How to improve the storage, treatment and distribution of water? Well, by bringing in investment and competition from the private sector through PPPs, and creating real incentives for proper operation and maintenance.


'apu2' and 'ghaliban'

Good points from both of you. Sadly, India's democracy does not allow the voice of 'technocrats' to be heard and listened to by the 'movers and shakers'.

It is ironic that one of the major pre-occupations of India's 'Rajahs and Maharajahs' in them days was to build ponds, lakes and irrigation channels and to maintain them through local effort. In South India, the Chola and Pandiyan Raja's, for instance, remitted 'kisti' or land tax for farmers who helped in the construction of new ponds or repaired existing ones.

Hindu temples in most parts of South India, even small ones, boated a 'temple tank'. Today, it is sad that in Tamil Nadu, ruled by 'rationalists', one or the other Dravidian parities, have allowed most temple tanks to go into ruin, in some cases, allowed their misappropriation by party officials and so on.

An Italian jesuit, Alfredo de Nobili, travelling through Tamil Nadu in the 16 th century says in effect, "there is stored water everywhere in this country, within fifteen minutes walk". Many older Indians remember that too.

Whenever I visit India, I cannot help noticing how profligate my neighbours are with water. I am sorry to say that Indians may well be the most careless and, indeed, in some cases, 'bloody-minded' people with valuable resources like water and electricity.

India's politicians, especially, at the state level are so mediocre, it is beyond belief. Mediocrity is India's way, it seems.

m mohsin

May I suggest one more solution (I know it's already been done in water scarce part ):

Dig more Bore well in flooded area (read: where rice/cotton grown using rain water) and let the floodwater penetrate the upper part of the underground.

Who will do it? Farmers or the local government? Let wise people help both of them.

This might cause trouble, as rivers will get less water to drain to the sea. Isn't it better than making dams/barrages upstream of the rivers (if nobody opposes, why not dams at the downstream?)?


The monsoons have returned with vigour and regretably it does not look like India is going to collapse afterall much to the disappointment of a handful of British who live in the past glory and try to stick a knife whenever possible into "rich upper caste Hindus". Sorry for you Sirs but we fight on. We feed ourselves and we do not have starving milllions. Neither did we promote slavery, nor did we take high moral grounds when we were in the wrong. The west does not feed us and please do not think that we need the west meddling in our affairs. We have had enough of West and the next dawn will be from East.


Just marginally mentioned were the tragic suicides caused by drought and water mismanagement every year. The author Satish Manwar and the director Prashant Pethe have produced a touching movie with the attempt to finally bring this topic to a broader public recognition. Hopefully, this very humanitarian issue finally becomes a blockbuster.


i am stunned by the dependence of India on seasonal fluctuations of the weather due to mismanagement of existing ground water supplies. although china is not a shining example of resource conservation the sheer difference in impact of a simple climate change is astounding.

i wish there would be articles covering china in more depth and more economically, rather than the hundreds of economist articles on china that have little do to with business and alot to do with politics.


@ indica

Well done of your comments.

India needs more butter and bread and not arms and barracks!

If the huge budget of military spending if say save 1/3 for the 80 millions plus dalit etc, India would be much different!

xxx hardcore

Do Indians think the military budget (over 20 billion US dollars) is too large? From what I have heard, many think it is too little. One person told me that the military needs more money to defeat terrorism.

Some of that money, if used on water, would surly be more beneficial, no?


@ xxx hardcore

My goodness, I read your comments with GAWP and ......

For Indian, I don't think they see the danger and explosion of populace ever increasing with leaps and bounds .... now that the dalits populace of more than 80 millions, what a burden and a sore-eye to India's rising of military prestige and economic power of 1/3 of China's GDP and a member of BRIC!

Very soon or before 2015 India would overtake China to become the most populous country in the world with half of her peoples illiterate and living under the poverty line.... What the future holds .......

I don't mind what our Indians friends jibbed about China's one child policy etc as cruel or what on humanitarian grounds etc ... Please don't mind I ask, leaving half of the population uneducated (at least with minimum 6-year of writing and speaking skill) and living below the poverty line are in the interests of India!?


"How come Economist delete the comment again?"

Apparently it is out of respect for the readers of the comments section. Which is OK. There must be some ground rules what you can do and what you cannot in every civilized discussion forum. Otherwise discussion would degrade to a Shouting Match Of a Bierzelt.
They deleted a comment of mine related to birth control, too.


India should realize that the "rotating wheel"/Rotary Club stuff basically is a marketing message of the railway and car industry.
The West is much more than the rotating wheel - it is also the bible, art, our education system, churches, castles, historic artifacts like HMS Victory or the Buran Space Shuttle.

Japan realized a very long time ago that pure information is what makes the West so strong.
Russia is realizing that right now. Britain is a bit confused. France, Italy and Spain never forgot it. Germany is partially caught in the rotating-wheel thing, partially using the Nazi gods, partially in good faith.

xxx hardcore

@ orphan,

According to the article, the population of superpower India will go to 1.7 Billion! How is the superpower ever going to take care of that? They cannot take care of 1.2 Billion.

Superpower India, according reports, spends some 70 BILLION dollars on its military! The government lies that it spends 32 billion.

It spends as much on military as China does, and China is three times bigger economy. And China is based on manufacturing.

Superpower India could spend 5% of its military budget on water, and a lot of the problems here would be gone.

But water is a minor thing for the superpower.


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