Cauvery Water Dispute

India’s leading water expert and president of the South Asia Consortium for Inter disciplinary Water Resources Studies, S Janakarajan, wonders why Chennai, a city that receives 1,250 mm rainfall, is called a thirsty city and goes on to explain to Shivani Chaturvedi what went wrong among the southern states that led to a water-war like situation. But, he warns that such a scenario will keep occurring if the government does not come up with a lasting solution.

- Shivani Chaturvedi

There is a war-like situation in the south over water sharing. Why is there a water crisis?

The most important reason for this is the increase in demand for water from all sectors including agriculture, industry and urban areas. In the last few years, urbanisation is taking place rapidly all over the country and more so in the southern states. Tamil Nadu is considered the most urbanised state in the country with around 48 percent of the population living in urban areas. Even Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala are not lagging behind. There is an increase in population too.

If we put all this in perspective, we will know that while supply of water is limited, the demand has been on the rise. This is something unusual that we are experiencing. We need to understand, analyse and historically look at how this demand went up and what we have done wrong.

Are these states water deficit?

I don’t think so. We need to question our water management and conservation techniques. Our drinking water needs have been increasing. Bengaluru needs around 20 tmc [thousand million cubic] feet water per annum for drinking purposes. I am told that their daily demand for drinking water is around 1,300-1,400 million litres. About 30 to 40 percent of water is wasted in transmission, distribution and leakages. Thus, arresting losses would save water and increase supply. Whenever there is a deficit of Water, we only think about water supply augmentation which is our standard water management technique, whether it is for drinking, industrial or agricultural use. We should streamline the distribution system, and have a mechanism to reuse water.

Our irrigation system and canal networks are age-old. We need to modernise the canal network and introduce new and modern control structures so that we know how much water is required for each crop and for land, so that only that much water is supplied.