New Delhi: There were many repeated appeals and environmental campaigns on television, social media and newspapers warning about a day when you might wake up and find that you no longer have running water available in taps. Now, the satellite evidence has proved that the day is about to come very soon.
In the latest of such data, a new early warning satellite has sent an alarm for India and a handful other nations which says that “taps are going to dry out completely”. The other countries that can be described under such are Morocco, Iraq and Spain. The satellite has been for long studying the shrinking water levels in reservoirs across the world.
According to a news report in The Guardian, developers of the satellite early warning system, which records water levels in the world’s 500,000 dams, have warned that rapidly shrinking reservoirs in India could very soon lead to the “day zero” water crisis. The study shows details of water levels in Indian dams and reservoirs, its way of utilisation and wastage, and the impact of climate change. Based on the study, it issued a warning that taps in India could go to a “completely dry up” situation much earlier than previously predicted.
In India’s case, though a water crisis is expected in many states, tensions have been apparent over the water allocations for two reservoirs connected by the Narmada river, the study had revealed.
Poor rainfalls last year left the upstream Indira Sagar dam in Madhya Pradesh a third below its seasonal average. When some of this shortfall was passed on to the downstream Sardar Sarovar reservoir, it caused an uproar because the latter supplies drinking water for more than 30 million people.
According to news agencies, last month, the Gujarat government halted irrigation activity and appealed to all the farmers not to prepare for crops for the time being.
Cape Town recently made international headlines by launching an official countdown to a nearing day when taps would run completely dry to millions of residents in South Africa as a result of a three-year drought.
Drastic conservation measures have prevented that moment from coming in South Africa, but dozens of other countries face a similar type of risks from rising demand, utter mismanagement and climate change, say the World Resources Institute (WRI).
The US-based environmental entity is working with Deltares, the Dutch government and other partners to build very effective water and security early warning system that aims to anticipate social instability, economic damage and cross-border migration. A prototype is due to be rolled out later this year, but a snapshot, unveiled on Wednesday, highlighted four of the worst-affected dams and the potential knock-on risks.
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