Advancing Urban Water Security in India

IN THE HEART of Bengaluru, once celebrated as the City of Lakes, an unfolding drama of scarcity paints a stark contrast against its historic abundance.

- Bibek Debroy, Amit Kapoor Aditya Sinha

Where waters once flowed freely, nurturing life and livelihoods, now the taps run dry, heralding a dire daily struggle for survival. Residents, pushed to the brink, have adapted to a life of stringent water rationing – showers a rare luxury, cooking a water-intensive indulgence foregone, and reliance on treated water for basic needs becoming the norm. The city’s dependency on erratic water tanker deliveries exacerbates the crisis, with demand far outstripping supply, leaving communities grappling with the harsh realities of scarcity. This highlights a more widespread phenomenon of urban water crises unfolding globally.

A study published in Nature reveals that urbanisation and climate change are jointly intensifying the issue of water scarcity, where the demand for water surpasses its availability across the globe’s cities. By quantifying the global urban water scarcity for the years 2016 and 2050 across four different socioeconomic and climate scenarios and investigating possible interventions, the study forecasts a significant rise in the urban population grappling with water scarcity – from 933 million, which is a third of the global urban populace in 2016, to an estimated 1.693 to 2.373 billion, accounting for a third to nearly half of the global urban population by 2050. India is expected to bear the brunt of this increase, with an anticipated surge in its water-scarce urban population by 153 to 422 million people. Additionally, the number of large cities facing water scarcity is predicted to expand from 193 to between 193 and 284, including between 10 to 20 megacities.