September 5 – GS1/Geography: 2025 | UPSC Daily Answer Writing Practice PDF Download

What is water stress? How and why does it differ regionally in India? (UPSC GS1 Mains)

Introduction 
Water stress occurs when the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain period or when poor quality restricts its use. Water stress causes deterioration of fresh water resources in terms of quantity (aquifer over-exploitation, dry rivers, etc.) and quality (eutrophication, organic matter pollution, saline intrusion, etc.) 

• India placed thirteenth among the world’s 17 ‘extremely water-stressed’ countries, according to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas released by the World Resources Institute (WRI). 
• Chandigarh was the most water-stressed, followed by Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. 

Regional differences in water stress in India: 

• Some regions have been hit harder by the change in rainfall patterns. Parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, for instance, have seen a significant shortfall in rainfall over the last decade compared to historical averages. Even in regions, such as Uttarakhand, where average rainfall has increased—this could be driven by more extreme rainfall over short spans of time, the type of rains that cause floods. 
• There are harrowing conditions of water scarcity in peninsular India. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and Gujarat are in a particularly bad way, with northern Karnataka and Maharashtra not receiving adequate rainfall for three or four consecutive years. 
• The entire country is vulnerable to ‘vegetation drought’; regions with low soil moisture such as the river basins of Mahi, Sabarmati, Krishna, Tapi and Cauvery are particularly susceptible due to low levels of soil moisture. 
• It is extraordinary that Kerala should be in the grip of a water crisis in precisely the regions that were devastated by last year’s floods. A combination of high temperatures and water scarcity has put crops such as cardamom, rubber and tea under stress, with pest attack risks on the rise. 
• According to the NITI Aayog report, 21 cities, including New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad, are set to run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting an estimated 100 million people. 
• It warned that groundwater resources, which constitute 40 percent of India’s water supply, were being depleted at unsustainable rates. 
• Excessive groundwater extraction affects not just the quantity but also the quality of water. 

Reasons of water stress at regional level in India: 

• The gap between supply and demand will likely widen due to climate change and drought-like situations, drying of Himalayan springs that caused recent Shimla water crisis and uncontrolled groundwater extraction. 
• Exacerbating these set of policies which encourage water wastage, deepening the water crisis that threatens the livelihoods and lives of millions in rural India. 
• This growing demand for water is almost entirely driven by farmers. In India more than 80% of water demand is used for farming, and agricultural water consumption is expected to stay at these levels even in 2050. 
• India’s reliance on water for farming is partly self-inflicted. For instance, the government’s minimum support price scheme incentivizes the production of water-intensive crops, such as rice and sugar cane, even in areas not suitable for these crops’ production. 
• For instance, the Punjab government is offering cash transfers to farmers for every unit of electricity they save to wean them away from pumping more water.Micro-irrigation practices, such as the use of drips and sprinklers, are not picking up at the desired pace. Economic Survey 2015-16 observes: “The key bottlenecks in the adoption of this technology are the high initial cost of purchase and the skill required for maintenance.” 
• Issues relating to coordination have further complicated water issues. Traditionally, different aspects of water have been managed in isolation by different ministries. This has now changed with the newly-formed Jal Shakti ministry, which has subsumed several different water-related departments. 

Conclusion 
Therefore, power subsidies can be gradually withdrawn and instead drip and sprinkler irrigation subsidised. This should be accompanied by a shift away from paddy and sugarcane in rain fed regions, with subsidies and incentives being linked to such choices. Telangana have shown the way in furthering micro-irrigation through Mission Kakatiya, which entails the revival of over 40,000 tanks in the State.
An immediate as well as medium-term policy response is called for. The first priority is to stave off a drinking water crisis by rationing the use of water for irrigation purposes. We will have to apply a good mix of centralized storage (in the form of conventional large reservoirs and large interbasin water transfer programs) and decentralized and distributed storage systems in farmers’ fields and villages.

Topics covered - Water resources in India, Indian Drainage system