The Water Crisis in the State of Assam

Anandita Pathak

Suggested citation: Pathak A. (2021). The Water Crisis in the State of Assam. Moolya Magazine.

January2021 Issue/WS/PolicyBrief/2021

Winter School Policy Brief

Executive Summary

In 2018, NITI Aayog released a report on the study of India’s water crisis. It was

a clarion call, warning us that India is facing its worst water crisis in history. If not regulated, it highlighted how the demand for potable water will surpass its supply by 2030. As per the report, the country’s population faced high to extreme;khjh water stress, with about 2,00,000 people dying every year due to

inadequate access to safe water. 21 Indian cities were predicted to run out of groundwater by 2020. There is a stark attention-disparityAuthor between Name

metropolitan cities and north-eastern states on the water issue, leading to higher deprivation of resources for the latter. This criticalDesignation state of India’s water crisis needs to be managed. The prior mismanagement responsible for it makes it most imperative to plan a course of action. Email ID

Date of Submission

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Introduction

With each passing day, an increasing number of people are getting deprived of access to absolutely portable drinking water in India. Though the vision of drinking water availability is from a macro perspective, when we observe this issue at a micro level, we notice that states like that of Assam, and especially in Guwahati which is its major city, people suffer due to the shortage of safe drinking water. This is unexpected for most people who have information only about the annual floods of Assam. The increasing depletion of water resources is a matter of grave concern.. Along with the entire country, otherwise considered to be environmentally rich, the North-eastern state of Assam is now under the threat of complete groundwater depletion by the year 2030.

The water crisis in the state of Assam

The state of Assam is situated on the banks of the ‘mighty’ Brahmaputra, a river whose boundary runs across China, India and Bangladesh. About 11 tributaries of this river run across Assam. The second largest river in the North-eastern state, Barak also forms a major water resource for Assam. Guwahati, the capital city of Assam in the Kamrup metro district is located on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river. Its population is largely dependent on these two river systems for its daily water requirement. In addition to these resources, Assam also receives more than 1,500 mm average rainfall per year. In spite of what may seem abundant sources for its water needs, Assam has faced a scarcity of water for a long time.

This shortage of water in the state of Assam is owed to a range of factors mentioned below, most of which are man-made in nature:

● A major cause is the quality of rivers that form sources of water for Assam. Recent studies have indicated that both in the Brahmaputra valley and Barak valley of Assam, many areas are arsenic prone. This is aggravating the health concerns of the residents of this region. ● The mismanagement of both groundwater and surface water has added to the depletion of water tables in Assam. Examples of this include the effects of industrial waste and domestic waste. Often religious practices also add to the water pollution across the state. ● The unplanned development of the urban areas in Assam, especially the city of Guwahati has led to restriction in groundwater absorption because of increased concrete structures. ● The annual groundwater draft in Assam is estimated to be 5.44 billion cubic metre, of which 4.85 billion cubic metre is used for irrigation and 0.59 billion cubic metre is used for domestic and industrial uses. Owing to the large agrarian sector and the type of crops cultivated in Assam, in combination with the lack of alternative for irrigation, a large section of water resources goes into agricultural needs which add to the water crisis. ● While Assam receives an overwhelming amount of rainfall, often leading to floods, the absence of rainwater harvesting in Assam barely puts this large amount of water to any use.

While several plans have been chalked out and water supply projects have been both announced and completed, these projects have not been successful in meeting the needs of a proportionate section of the population. In 2009, the ambitious Greater Guwahati Water Supply Project was sanctioned. However, even after years of commencement in which roads across the city were excavated to lay water pipelines, the completion date of the project has been pushed to 2022.

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Specific areas in Guwahati face such severe shortage of water; combined with the bi-annual flood problem in Assam. Residents spend a significant amount of their earnings in buying water. During COVID-19, the residents of a tiny village of Kumarikata Bahbari in Baksa district of Assam have screamed hue and cry for the need of clean drinking water. While they meet their drinking water requirements from far off reserves, for several other purposes they do away with murky water.

There are several issues that need to be tackled when it comes to dealing with this issue. These include largely the factors cited above as reasons leading to the water crisis in this part of India. However, some of them that require immediate attention among them include:

• Utilising rainwater from the overwhelming amount of rain that Assam receives every year. The average rainfall in Assam every year is 1,722 mm per year which amounts to 5,64,816 million litres of water, enough to serve 37,65,440 people. However, residents of the city struggle each day to access their share of water. It is common to see people in the city lining up near community water taps or pumping tube wells. This largely owes to, first, absence of rainwater harvesting in the state and the plan for the same. The unplanned city development leads more to floods than to using this rainwater. Rainwater has been a historically utilised method in India, and has proved to be successful across several regions. In 2014, a resident of Guwahati, Pratul Bharali, an engineer by profession designed his house to be able to harvest rainwater. His plan has proved to be fruitful in meeting a large part of his and his family’s water requirement. He has set an example that needs to be followed, adopted in policies and by the residents.

In 2009, the Greater Guwahati Water Supply Project was announced at a cost of Rs 389.53 crore. When the project was initiated, the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) official said that it will be catering to the uninterrupted water supply to the population of Guwahati. However, this ray of hope has now diminished as the project remains incomplete with dates being pushed ahead to 2022. The recent estimate of the project was seen to have gone up to 1426 crores, thereby consuming both the money invested and the time of the Guwahati residents. There are several sub-issues pertaining to this water crisis which can be broadly mentioned as following:

• Increasing expenses for getting the basic need of portable water eventually leads to creating a divide between the rich and the poor in accessing this basic resource. Communities across flats and apartments often face sudden water shortages. However, the number of such concrete structures in this world of urbanisation and increasing population continue to grow. • There is wastage of water. Large amount of rainwater can be used alternatively for other purposes. Similarly, water used in domestic purposes can often be recycled. Pollution of already available water resources by religious activities, customs as well as simple activities in rural areas such as bathing or washing clothes and animals in rivers.

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Recommendations

Some of the most important recommendations to deal with this problem include:

• Adopting rainwater harvesting compulsorily through a policy for new buildings and apartments. • Raising awareness of the magnanimity of the crisis. • Fastening the process of completion of the Water Supply Project, 2009. • Adopting a sustainable planning methodology for city development and limiting the activities that deplete the available water resources.

References

Baruah J. (2019). Emerging Water Crisis in Guwahati. Pratidin Times.

Borah C. (2020) Water Management in Guwahati: A critical study of the role of the Government in Assam. Journal of Critical Reviews. Vol 7, Issue 3.

Bhattacharya and Borah. (2014). Drinking Water in Guwahati City: Its Past, Present Status and Associated Problems. Space and Culture, India.

Dutta D. (2020). Assam Says, “Water Water Everywhere, Not A Drop To Drink”. Republic World.

Mishra S. (2019). Several locations in Guwahati reeling under Water Scarcity. GPlus.

Staff Reporter. (2020). Fresh drinking water crisis hits prime localities in Guwahati. The Sentinel.

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Key Highlights ABOUT MOOLYA FOUNDATION

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Through her encounters with the social and economic realities in both her home state Assam and the national capital, Anandita evoked her interest to understand and work with the policymaking sector. She believes that it is her quest in comprehending the several policy issues across the world which brought her to engage with several volunteer-ships for a variety of causes at various organisations. She has worked for multiple organisations engaging in child rights and education across India.

She is a final year undergraduate student of History at the University of Delhi. Anandita is presently the Editor in Chief at El Jeffa Foundation, along with working for several other foundations.

Email: [email protected]

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