During the scorching summer months from March to July, large parts of India battle some sort of a water crisis. There is no other natural resource that animates politics in India as water. Think the Mullaperiyar dam dispute, or the sharing of Cauvery river waters, to give just two examples.
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Despite the intensity of passions they provoke, they have a way of slipping out of the public consciousness as soon as the rains arrive. This refusal to address water sharing in a comprehensive manner, and beyond egoistical territorial disputes, is an important theme in The Watershed Moment by Aniket Ghanashyam, a water-policy consultant to several States.
‘Day Zero’ crises
Ghanashyam’s most impressive achievement is in giving a bird’s eye view of the challenges triggered by water scarcity the world over. So we have succinct summaries of the ‘Day Zero’ water crisis in 2018, which the author witnessed as a student in Cape Town, South Africa where citizens waited with dread for a day that water would run out. Though ‘Day Zero’ never came, Ghanashyam says that it rocked citizens “to the core” and it gave them a “new found respect for water and its value to society.”
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Cape Town’s main water supply from the Theewaterskloof dam outside Grabouw, Cape Town, South Africa, is almost dry. | Photo Credit: AP
He also discusses near-‘Day Zero’ crises in Barcelona, drought woes in Australia and brewing discontent over water-sharing arrangements between Singapore and Malaysia. He discusses the history and civilisational connect of dams, their environmental consequences and how they may have promoted extreme water use inefficiency. Ghanashyam lists a host of technological solutions — waste water treatment, biofiltration, drip irrigation — that are all aimed at increasing water-use efficiency. But a discussion on the true cost of implementing them, especially in poor countries, is missing. As an introductory primer to multiple dimensions of the global water crisis, this book is a valuable addition to the literature.
A view of River Ter running dry near Vilanova de Sau, Catalonia, Spain. | Photo Credit: AP
The Watershed Moment; Aniket Ghanashyam, Manipal Universal Press, ₹650.
jacob.koshy@thehindu.co.in