NEW DELHI, June 15 (Xinhua) — India is facing its worst ever water crisis so far in its history, warned a report prepared by Indian government’s ace thinktank and policy adviser the National Institution for Transforming India, or NITI Aayog, on Friday.
Currently 600 million Indians face "high to extreme" water shortage and about 200,000 people die every year due to inadequate access to potable water, the report said.
The water crisis will get worse as the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply by 2030, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual 6 percent loss in the country’s GDP, it added.
Titled "Composite Water Management Index," the report was prepared by the "NITI Aayog" in association with the country’s Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and the Ministry of Rural Development.
NITI Aayog is India’s premier policy thinktank providing both directional and policy inputs to the government.
While designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the government, it also provides relevant technical advice to the center and states.
The report further stated that as many as 21 major cities in the country are most likely to run out of groundwater by 2020, thereby affecting nearly 100 million people.
The low performing states are mainly the populous ones like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, among others.
These states are home to over 600 million people, and account for 20-30 percent of the country’s agricultural output.
"Thus, there is an imminent need to deepen our understanding of our water resources and usage and put in place interventions that make our water use efficient and sustainable," said the report.

The Composite Water Management Index, released by the Niti Aayog on Thursday, begins with the line: "India is suffering from the worst crisis in its history and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat."
The report says that 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, and two lakh people die every year because they cannot access safe water.
"The crisis is only going to get worse," the report says.
"By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual ~6% loss in the country’s GDP," it says.
Water Index scores, which have been put together on the basis of 28 indicators including ground water, restoration of water bodies, irrigation, and drinking water, are below 50 percent in most states.
The best performing states are Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya, according to the report, with scores ranging from 76 to 56.
The worst performing states are Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya, according to the report, with scores ranging from 38 to 26.
Fifteen out of 24 state are low performers, with scores less than 50 percent, concentrated across the populous agricultural belts of North and East India, and among the North-Eastern and Himalayan states.
Low performers include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Haryana, which are some of India’s most populous states, home to over 600 million people.
Read the full report here.

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s National Water Supply and Drainage Board, is investing 1.2 billion US dollars to increase access to safe drinking water, but high borrowing costs, leaky pipes, and volatile weather may require more alternative financing, a finance ministry report said.
The Water Board provides pipe-born safe drinking water to less than half the Sri Lankan population and has several projects worth around $1.2 billion US dollars (190 billion rupees) to increase its coverage to 100 percent of the population by 2025, the Ministry of Finance 2018 Annual Report said.
"Ground water contamination due to unsafe environmental practices is also a concern.
In this context the Board has undertaken a project in the Jaffna peninsula to construct/install a desalination plant," it said.
There has not been a tariff revision since 2012 resulting in the government infusing 12 billion rupees in 2017 alone including Treasury guarantees to bridge investment gaps.
The Ministry of Finance has guaranteed up to 51 billion rupees of the Water Board’s bank loans by the end of 2017.
The Water Board treated 679 million cubic meters of drinking water in 2017, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, but lost 25 percent or 171 million cubic meters due to leaks.
Colombo was the biggest offender wasting 43 percent of the water it treats for drinking due to neglected pipes and broken roadside taps.
The Water Board reported revenue of 1.8 billion rupees during the year, down 38 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of 24 billion rupees, up 1 percent from a year ago.
Cost of production increased 5.3 percent to 14.2 billion rupees, administrative expenses rose 8.7 percent to 9.9 billion rupees and operating expenses grew 4.9 percent to 714 million rupees.

We know when private companies take over our water systems, rates often go up and service often worsens.
Now, there’s another danger we’re fighting: officials hiding important information about access to the human right to water in our communities.
A new suit we filed today in New Jersey illustrates why water privatization is a dangerous threat to the most vulnerable communities and is potentially a means to hide the devastating effects of policies like water shutoffs.
Public water officials have a duty to keep certain information—like the number of residents who have had their water shutoff for non-payment—accessible to the public.
In Camden, we submitted an open records request to the city for this data.
But since Camden’s water is now privately managed by New Jersey American Water, the city claimed they didn’t have the information and to contact the water company.
In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit for New Jersey, we’re suing Camden in order to force New Jersey American Water to release details on water shutoffs in the city.
“New Jersey American Water profits from controlling what should be a public service.
But We Can Save It.
While we will continue to fight for safe, clean and accessible drinking water for all using any means necessary – including taking it to the courts – you can take action today by urging your congressmember to support the WATER Act, legislation that would fully fund our public water systems and keep them from becoming prey to the advances of Wall Street and private water companies like New Jersey American Water.

San Salvador, El Salvador, Jun 14, 2018 / 12:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a statement issued Monday, the Catholic bishops of El Salvador urged preventative legislation against the privatization of water sources.
A “General Water Law that guarantees this fundamental human right” to water access should be pushed in the lawmaking process, the statement said.
Some lawmakers are pushing for more private-sector involvement in managing water in the country.
Several data sources show that El Salvador lacks consistently safe water for its citizens.
Certain geographical areas of the country have more limited access to water than others.
As of 2015, 77 percent of urban areas are within “safely managed” water services, which means that water sources are “located on the premises, available when needed and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination.” In rural areas, however, “safely managed” water services are nearly non-existent.
About 83 percent of the drinking water in rural areas is considered “basic,” indicating that any of the criteria for “safely managed” water may be absent, but it does not take longer than 30 minutes to collect.
Nearly 17 percent of rural areas collect water from “limited sources,” where the collection time is greater than 30 minutes, or they gather water straight from a lake, river, canal, pond, irrigation canal, dam or stream.
The people should also exercise their right to be heard on this topic, the bishops said, for “an unjust law that violates the rights of the people can not be admitted.” “As pastors,” they said, “we are witnesses of the clamor of our people, who ask for clean water in all homes and who could not pay the costs if such vital liquid became a commodity that is subject to the laws of the market.” You may also like » At a recent meeting, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gave a bleak summary of the state of their… As the situation in Catalonia unfolds after the Spanish autonomous community declared…
The Bishops of Paraguay made an urgent appeal for peace after hundreds of demonstrators set fire…

A saddening problem Of all the issues that the world faces, scarcity of water in developing counties is proving itself to be one of the most damaging.
Over 783 million people worldwide – the equivalent to one in nine people, don’t have access to clean drinking water.
The process of simply installing water systems in communities affected by a lack of access to clean water is no longer a solution that is adequate in achieving this goal.
Yet, by finding a way to ensure these water systems are maintained properly, a real positive change can be achieved.
Modern-day solutions for a longstanding issue The answer to one of the most fundamental problems that Africa is facing is no longer a utopian fantasy or centuries away.
Whilst a solar powered pump, filtration system, tank or local water distribution system is being installed or repaired, eWATER trains local engineers to maintain the system and upgrade communal taps.
By highlighting this real-time performance of the water taps, any issues can quickly be identified and fixed– combatting the ultimate problem of inactive water systems that can no longer be used by members of local communities.
Anyone wishing to use the new system can obtain an eWATER NFC tag from a local shop.
However, since many customers may not have a Smartphone, the system has been designed to allow anyone in the village to become a local distributor for eWATER credit.
It has become clear that the use of IoT is truly changing people’s lives by making a sustainable and positive impact on the most critical and basic of human needs.

UTUADO, Puerto Rico — Carmen Rodríguez Santiago counts herself lucky to have any water service at home.
Flow is often intermittent and the water quality is uncertain.
Throughout Puerto Rico, electrical outages and faulty generators mean pumps don’t consistently deliver water to residents’ homes and operations are disrupted at water treatment plants.
Hurricane Maria’s destruction knocked out water service to over half of the residents using the island’s utility provider, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The authority provides water to more than 97 percent of the island.
More than a third of sewage treatment plants were unable to function after the hurricane, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, resulting in raw sewage flowing into waterways residents used for drinking and bathing.
The results of that testing have not been released, according to the water authority.
Most of the infractions — based on 2015 data collected by the EPA — involved failing to test the water’s safety.
Nearly 7 in 10 residents received water from a source that violated federal health standards, according to the report.
For the past eight months, she has walked a half-hour with her two children to a local water station maintained by the military to fill up plastic milk jugs for the family’s showers.

Stating this during a two day media dialogue on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Anambra State earlier in the week, a Research Specialist, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mainga Moono Banda said so far, about 130 million Nigerians use unimproved sanitation facilities, adding that more than half of that figure live in rural areas.
They said with the steady decline, Nigeria may not meet the 2030 target of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on water sanitation and hygiene, except something drastic is put in place.
“Of the 180 million Nigerians in the country, about 75.8 per cent of the citizens who live in rural areas practice open defecation, making the country the third highest nation with open defecation globally.
“Target six in the SDG is specific on WASH.
Also, by 2030, nations should achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene, and end open defecation,” Banda said, noting that special attention should be placed on women, girls, and those in vulnerable situations.
“Poor WASH can cause myriads of problems, including death.
A mother who just delivered can infect her baby by mere carrying the baby if her hands are not properly washed.
With proper hygiene, the woman can help prevent the baby from sepsis or deaths by about 15 per cent.
“Poor WASH can affect school attendance because a child who is infected with bouts of diarrhea can end up becoming undernourished, and on the long run may lead to stunting, poor attendance in school.
Meanwhile, the Programme Manager, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Ministry of Public Utilities and Water Resources, Anambra State, Ezekwo Victor said the state government was committed to WASH, adding that Governor Willie Obiano has rehabilitated 116 non functional boreholes across the state.

Cape Town – Drinking water is the most constrained resource around the world and humanity’s greatest challenge, according to Zero Mass Water founder and chief executive Cody Friesen, a materials scientist and an associate professor at Arizona State University in the US, who launched his solar water concept in Cape Town on Tuesday.
The panel system uses an ultra-absorbent material that collects water from the surrounding air, even in arid conditions.
The system produces an average of three to five litres of water a panel a day.
He became a professor of materials science in 2004.
“What I arrived at was that direct renewable resources was the thing that was going to be next, because renewable to electricity solves part of the problem, but eventually we must solve energy, water and food, and the most constrained resource we face around the world is drinking water.
Friesen said Cape Town recently faced the possibility of a Day Zero, which was pushed back to next year.
He said about a half-a-trillion litres of bottled water were sold globally a year.
“Yet at the same time, we’ve got supercomputers in our pockets that have all of humanity’s information – all of this knowledge; other channels that allow us to leapfrog well-point infrastructure.
So the question became, could we be creating leapfrogging water,” he said.
Friesen said Zero Mass Water’s Source hydropanes are a world-first technology, which use sunlight and air to make safe, pure drinking water.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to complete a new environmental review of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the next two months, Kallanish Energy reports.
The federal agency intends to complete the report by Aug. 10.
That report was initially to be completed last April.
Last year, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, in Washington, D.C., allowed the pipeline developed by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners to begin moving oil from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.
The judge also ordered the Corps of Engineers to further review the impact of the pipeline on the Standing Rock, Cheyenne, Yankton and Ogalala Sioux tribes.
That included looking at how a spill from the pipeline could impact drinking water for the tribes.
ETP has said the pipeline is safe and not a problem.
Last June 1, Dakota Access began moving crude.
It was the site of major protests in late 2016 and early 2017 in North Dakota, on an Indian reservation.
The 1,170-mile pipeline is moving 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the Midwest and the Gulf Coast.