Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh — the two largest states in terms of area and population — are among around a dozen states where the magnitude of water problem is not just large, but also complex.
India constitutes around 16 per cent of the world’s population, but the country has only four per cent of the world’s freshwater resources. Changing weather patterns and recurring droughts, coupled with increasing pressure on groundwater resources due to over-reliance has made India one of the most water-stressed countries in the world.
The official data from 2021 shows that more than 90 percent of groundwater in India is used for irrigation in agriculture. The remaining 24 billion cubic meters supplies about 85 percent of the country’s drinking water requirements.
India’s water crisis – what data suggests
India is the largest extractor of groundwater in the world — more than the USA and China put together. A study published by Science.org has found that by 2025, large swaths of north-western and southern India will have “critically low groundwater availability.” The country is further projected to face severe water stress by 2050.
As of 2019, only 17 per cent of the 191 million rural households in India had access to tap water connection. According to the Central Groundwater Board report (2017), nearly 40 per cent of the 700 districts in India have reported ‘critical’ or ‘overexploited’ groundwater levels.
States facing the threat
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh — the two largest states in terms of area and population — are among around a dozen states where the magnitude of water problem is not just large, but also complex. The other states facing the challenge include Karnataka, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Budelkhand, which spreads across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, is among the regions worst hit from the crisis in India. Water table has shrunk in these areas and people are forced to walk miles to get a pitcher of water. Coordination between the Centre and the state governments of UP and MP is key to address the issue of water scarcity in the Bundelkhand region. Notably, both states are ruled by the BJP, which is also in power at the Centre.
Government initiatives
A National Perspective Plan for water transfer from surplus basins to water-deficit ones was formulated way back in 1980. The National Water Development Agency, which had identified 30 such river links, began working on four priority links. But it was during the Vajpayee era that the river-interlinking program got a big push. The Vajpayee government decided to take up the Ken-Betwa river-interlinking project first and began the groundwork for it.
According to the Jal Shakti ministry, the project will be of immense benefit to the water-starved region, especially the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen of Madhya Pradesh, and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh.
In December last year, the Union Cabinet approved the funding and implementation of Ken-Betwa inter-linking of rivers project with a total cost of Rs 44,605 crore. The project will be completed in eight years. It envisages transferring water from the Ken river to the Betwa river, both tributaries of the Yamuna. The Ken-Betwa Link Canal will be 221 km long, including a 2-km long tunnel.
The project has two phases, with mainly four components. Phase-I will involve one of the components — Daudhan Dam complex and its subsidiary units such as Low Level Tunnel, High Level Tunnel, Ken-Betwa Link Canal and power houses. Phase-II will involve three components — Lower Orr Dam, Bina Complex Project and Kotha Barrage. According to the Jal Shakti Ministry, the project is expected to provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh hectares, supply drinking water to about 62 lakh people, and generate 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW of solar power.
In 2019, the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government launched a Rs 3,000-crore project which successfully provided piped water supply to homes in Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions of the state. The Atal Bhujal Yojana, with a total outlay of Rs 6,000 crore from 2020 to 2025, aims at participatory ground-water management in 78 districts of seven states, including the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The World Bank is funding this project.
Speaking to FinancialExpress.com, Madhya Pradesh Water Resources minister Tulsi Ram Silawat said that the Ken-Betwa project will help the state government in irrigating 8,11,000 hectare of agricultural land and providing fresh drinking water to 62 lakh people across districts of Bundelkhand. “Other than this, 103 megawatt electricity will be generated and employment opportunities will be created,” he added. Silawat said that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in the state is making efforts towards conserving natural water bodies and promoting ways for water conservation.
UP’s outgoing Jal Shakti minister Baldev Singh Aulakh said that the Yogi government’s project to provide piped water to people in Bundelkhand region is almost complete. “In the previous government, water was supplied via trains, people back then faced hardships. After Yogi ji came to power in 2017, there has been no major water crisis reported from anywhere in the state,” he told FinancialExpress.com.
Aulakh added that the government’s target to provide tap water connection to every household was being completed aggressively and promised that it will be achieved across the state before 2024 itself. On the issue of receding levels of groundwater in several parts of the state, Aulakh said that several dams, which were left broken for the last three or four decades, were being revamped by the government.
