India possesses nearly 4 per cent of the global freshwater resources, according to NITI Aayog. Around 600 million people in India lack access to clean water, making it the biggest water crisis in history. Rapid urbanisation, aging infrastructure and inadequate water resources have resulted in severe water shortages in many cities including Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. According to the 2030 Water Resources Group, India’s water demand will surpass supply by almost 50 per cent by 2030.
Major challenges
India faces challenges due to obsolete water distribution systems that were constructed during or after independence to cater to smaller populations or less urbanised areas. In the current scenario, these systems are struggling to keep up with the increased water demand due to growing urbanisation and population. This inadequacy leads to a lack of capacity and frequent service disruptions. The problem extends beyond mere water quantity or quality deficits, encompassing inefficient utilisation and poor water management as well.
Water utilities are struggling to cater to the rising demand, resulting in a growing disparity between supply and demand, necessitating an expansion of the service network in cities. Some of the other issues and challenges faced by the water sector are pipeline leakages, high non-revenue water (NRW), intermittent water supply, depletion of groundwater sources and rapidly polluting surface water.
India must take swift and comprehensive action to address the problems caused by resource depletion and inadequate water supply. To alleviate water shortages and promote sustainable water management, the government has taken a number of initiatives.
Government initiatives
Budget 2023-24
Under the Union Budget 2023-24, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has received an allocation of Rs 972.77 billion. Of the total allocation, an outlay of Rs 700 billion has been made for the Jal Jeevan Mission. Meanwhile, Rs 71.92 billion has been earmarked under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin). Meanwhile, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has received an allocation of Rs 764.32 billion. Of this, the outlay for the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) is Rs 50 billion, around 150 per cent higher than the revised estimate of Rs 20 billion for 2022-23. Meanwhile, an allocation of Rs 80 billion each has been earmarked for Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the Smart Cities Mission.
Jal Jeevan Mission
Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, all rural households in India are expected to have access to clean and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024. It is one of the largest drinking water initiatives in the world, under which around Rs 3.6 trillion has been allocated for the construction of drinking water infrastructure in rural India. As of May 23, 2023, of the 194.5 million rural households in India, more than 120 million households (around 62 per cent) have been provided with individual household tap connections. States and UTs including Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Haryana, Gujarat, Puducherry, Punjab and Telangana have achieved 100 per cent coverage.
AMRUT
In order to improve the quality of infrastructure services in the country, the government has launched AMRUT, with a focus on providing basic services to households in the areas of water supply, sewerage and urban transport and building amenities in cities to improve the quality of life for all, especially the poor and the disadvantaged. A total of 500 cities have been selected in various states for development under the mission.
The mission aims to improve water supply coverage through initiatives such as expansion of existing water supply and water treatment capacity, universal metering, rehabilitation of old water supply systems, recharge of groundwater and creation of special water supply arrangements for areas that lack such facilities. Furthermore, to facilitate the creation of a robust sewerage network in states, the mission has made provisions for augmenting existing sewerage systems and sewage treatment plants (STPs), rehabilitating old and worn-out sewerage systems and laying decentralised networks for underground sewerage systems, etc.
AMRUT 2.0 was launched in October 2021 for a period of five years (2021-22 to 2025-26) with additional objectives such as Pey Jal Survekshan to ensure the equitable distribution of water, reuse of wastewater, mapping of water bodies and healthy competition among the cities, the Technology Sub-Mission for water to leverage the latest global technologies in the field of water and Information, the Education and Communication (IEC) campaign to spread awareness among masses about water conservation. The total indicative outlay for AMRUT 2.0 is Rs 2,990 billion including a central share of Rs 767.60 billion.
Namami Gange Programme
The NamamiGange programme was announced as a flagship programme by the central government in June 2014 with a budget outlay of Rs 200 billion to meet the objectives of effective abatement of pollution, water conservation and rejuvenation of the national river Ganga. The states/UTs covered under the programme are Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan. The objective is to reduce pollution and rejuvenate the river. It was scheduled to be completed by December 2020. However, the programme’s completion date has been extended. The second phase commenced in 2021 and is expected to be completed by 2026.
The programme is being implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the state programme management groups. Its main pillars include building sewerage treatment infrastructure, creating river-front development, river-surface cleaning, bio-diversity conservation, afforestation, public awareness, industrial effluent monitoring and Ganga Gram.
NRW reduction and 24×7 water supply
The water sector in India experiences high NRW levels due to reasons such as ageing infrastructure, poor operations and maintenance, under-registration of customer meters, illegal connections and thefts, and unbilled authorised consumption. Major cities are grappling with outdated and deteriorating water infrastructure systems, which have an adverse impact on the water supply. Pipe breaks, frequent supply interruptions and leaks are more likely to occur with outdated infrastructure. The reduction of NRW and the provision of uninterrupted water supply have emerged as key priorities to ensure efficient management and conservation of India’s water resources.
Most cities have non-metered water supply connections while partially metered water connections are available in a few cities including Delhi, Nagpur, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Ahmedabad. Under government programmes such as AMRUT and the Jal Jeevan Mission, steps have been taken to ensure 100 per cent metering of water supply and the replacement of manual meters with automated metering infrastructure.
To achieve 100 per cent metering of water supply, Indore Smart City Development Limited is planning to install radio frequency smart water meters in over 24,000 households at an estimated cost of Rs 520 million. Similarly, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation has announced the installation of smart water supply systems, including supervisory control and data acquisition, and 113 bulk flow meters at an investment of Rs 53.6 million to address water supply distribution issues in the city.
In most parts of the country, water supply is intermittent. The reduction of NRW will help achieve 24×7 water supply. The government, ULBs and city corporations are making efforts to ensure 24×7 water supply to every household across the country. To this end, several programmes are being undertaken at the central and state levels.
Numerous projects are underway in this segment. One such project is the 24×7 Manimajra water supply project announced by the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh. The project will involve new waterworks to ensure continuous water supply in the city. It envisages additional storage of 4 million gallons of water, installation of more than 13,000 smart meters, construction of around 20 km of water lines, and development of an automated monitoring system for the water network.
Water reuse and desalination
Resources and goods are modified, recovered and reused in a circular economy, which is a restorative approach to production and consumption. The objective is to effectively utilise any waste that is accessible while minimising resource loss. For the sustainable reuse of treated wastewater, decentralised treatment techniques must be employed. Decentralised wastewater treatment systems are cost-effective solutions and utilise in-situ treatment technologies such as constructed wetlands, waste stabilisation ponds and anaerobic digesters.
The water sector has witnessed the emergence of various technologies, including moving bed biofilm reactors, extended aeration processes, sequential batch reactors, membrane bioreactors, bio-towers and anaerobic baffled wall reactors. Industries are also using several technologies for the reuse of water. Recently, Vedanta Aluminium, one of India’s largest aluminium producers, deployed internet of things (IoT)-based technology for cooling water analysis and an overall reduction in water consumption at its power plants in Jharsuguda. These power plants utilise a recirculating cooling system with water, and a cluster of natural draft cooling towers. IoT technology collects real-time operational data and provides recommendations to maintain optimal water quality parameters, thus contributing to water conservation efforts.
Desalination plants employ a number of technologies to make seawater suitable for potable and non-potable use. States such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Odisha are constructing desalination plants to harness seawater for potable and non-potable purposes. New technologies including low temperature thermal desalination (LTTD) and zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) have entered the Indian market. These technologies prioritise sustainable practices, effective energy utilisation and improved desalination plant performance. The ZLD-based desalination process mitigates the impact of brine discharge by establishing a closed water flow loop. Meanwhile, LTTD utilises the temperature differential to generate potable water by evaporating surface saltwater at low pressures and condensing the resulting fresh vapour with deep sea cold water.
Technology uptake
India has the potential to revolutionise its approach to water delivery and conservation through the implementation of cutting-edge technologies. The adoption of smart and advanced technologies for smart water management is being encouraged to reduce water loss and improve effectiveness. These technologies include advanced metering systems, real-time monitoring, IoT and data analytics. Furthermore, pump optimisation techniques can improve overall operations and system performance.
City authorities are taking proactive measures to implement technologies across the entire water network value chain. These include the adoption of smart meters and their enhancement with advanced features like low power, wide area networking, integrated mobile interfaces for reporting water usage by consumers, intelligent self-administered automatic chemical dosing in STPs, etc. As urbanisation continues to pose challenges in the water sector, new technologies are also gaining traction in network management to address these evolving needs.
The way forward
Due to India’s significant reliance on groundwater, there has been an over-extraction, resulting in a decline in the water table and adversely impacting the availability of drinking water. India is the world’s largest user of groundwater. It extracts more than any other country in the world and accounts for nearly 25 per cent of the world’s extracted groundwater. In order to maintain the groundwater level and avoid the exploitation of resources, the government is implementing various initiatives. It is crucial to shift focus towards developing an integrated approach to water management that encompasses the entire water cycle. This includes water supply, distribution, conservation, wastewater treatment and reuse. Moreover, the water utilities must prioritise the quality of water supplied, particularly for drinking purposes. Regular inspections and comprehensive assessments are necessary to ensure compliance with the required water quality standards in the country. This can be achieved by implementing maintenance programmes that include water quality checks at various levels.
Lastly, many water utilities in India face financial constraints, making it difficult to allocate sufficient resources for upgrades, maintenance and repairs. There is a need to develop robust financial planning and sustainable funding mechanisms to ensure the availability of adequate resources for infrastructure upgrades and maintenance. This may involve exploring various options such as public-private partnerships (PPPs), loans, grants and revenue generation through tariffs or user fees. Collaborating with the private sector is crucial to leverage their expertise, resources and innovative solutions in the development and maintenance of water infrastructure. PPPs can expedite infrastructure development, ensure efficient operations and effectively allocate risks and responsibilities. By embracing these approaches, water utilities can overcome financial challenges, facilitate infrastructure enhancement, and ensure the effective and sustainable management of water resources.
