India - Let us be clear: we have a water emergency.

www.downtoearth.org.in...

The articles suggest climate change/ global warming to blame however the real point is that in places like Mumbai as stated in the article although they are currently flooded with rain there drinking water comes from further away and they face an imminent water shortage.
It never goes well with people when just after a lot of rain the authorities cannot provide tapwater.
Also states already causes instability and wars due to lack of water and indeed i see this becoming more and more of a problem.

I am from India. And just in case you dont know, the rain water harvesting mechanisms are in place from the ancients days due to the hard work by the villagers in the villages, and the water is stored in ponds and lakes or sent underground through surface wells.

The problem is that the climate change currently occuring makes the monsoon rains erratic in nature. The crops depend on the timely arrival of the rains during the south-west monsson, and though mumbai is recieving lots of rain, many parts of the country have not yet recieved a drop of rain.

The bad news for India is scrawled across the scorching sky. Not a speck of monsoon clouds has been spotted over much of north and northwestern India for weeks, and the meteorological office has confirmed fears that the country will get late and below-normal rains this year. In a nation where 60% of farmland depends on rains, and where farms provide livelihood to more than 60% of the population, the news has triggered widespread panic. Top bureaucrats have been huddled up in meetings to chart out contingency plans to minimize damage to an already-stagnant agriculture sector in an economy which has only just begun to show signs of recovery following the worldwide slump.

Source

And so this creates drought like situations in most of the parts of the country.

And moreover in the pre monsoon times, during the month of may the temperatures soar well over 40 degree celsius in most places and you wont believe that a full pond will dry up within weeks. . Trust me, I have seen a considerably large pond dry in a week. And this results in water scarcity in the summer times, and coupled with the late arrival or failure of the monsoons due to the el nino, results in drought.

Trust me, I see the plight of people(myself included) struggling to get enough water, when it is supplied once in ten days. It sucks.

Sounds like what India needs is a bunch of desalination plants so they can get their water from the oceans surrounding them. Its these kinds of things that countries like mine should be setting up for countries like India .... something long term rather than just the short term aid of money, medicine and food (which are important as well).

It sickens me that with all the wealth and waste we see here in North America that there are still countries that have no food, water or medicine and not enough help to once and for all fix the problem instead of the short term band aid solutions our leaders here in the west seem reluctant to give out as it is.

In todays day and age, with the state of technology, NO ONE should be going hungry or thirsty in the world and basic medical attention should be available to all.

It makes me sad to hear that India and any other country suffering the same fate has no clean water to drink especially coming from a country that has an ample supply. We should be ashamed that as a civilized population that we let these things happen far too often.

My 2 cents

[edit on 24-7-2009 by QBSneak000]

[edit on 24-7-2009 by QBSneak000]

[edit on 24-7-2009 by QBSneak000]