Haribhau Kamble, an unemployed labourer in Maharashtra, the country’s richest state, is forced to queue for hours in scorching heat to fetch water even as the government dispatches trains to ship water to the region parched by back-to-back drought years.
Like Mr Kamble, millions of Indians have been hung out to dry in the state with the worst drought in four decades.
“The government says it is bringing water by train every day, but we are getting water once a week,” Mr Kamble said, after standing in line for three hours to fill two pitchers at a tap in Latur district, 300 miles southeast of Mumbai in drought-stricken Marathwada region.
Locals had been hoping a 50-wagon daily water train would ease shortages, but they were disappointed as the 2.5 million litres carried by the train and ferried by tankers to villages was not enough to meet the needs of Latur’s half a million people and Marathwada’s 19 million.
Marathwada, home to many sugar mills in Maharashtra, is one of the several regions in India that received below-average June-September rains in 2015. Overall, 33 crore people – a quarter of the country’s population – are currently affected by drought.
Water is set to get scarcer over the next two months as temperatures soar above 40 degrees Celsius, drying up Marathwada reservoirs that are now just 3 percent full.
“That Maharashtra would face a water crisis was clear when monsoons failed, yet the state took no action to curb supplies to water-guzzling industries like beer and sugar,” said Parineeta Dandekar, associate coordinator at the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.
“There are limits on how much water the government can supply by train. Had it reserved water sources for drinking last year, the situation would have been much better now.”
A rapid expansion of sugar cultivation has made matters worse. Cane accounts for 4 percent of Maharashtra’s crop area but devours two-thirds of its irrigation water.
Also, given politicians have stakes in sugar mills and other industries, there is a growing concern they may try to ensure water supply for their ventures.
Eknath Khadse, Maharashtra’s Agriculture Minister, said the state was also planning to restrict cane cultivation and propose a five-year ban on new mills in Marathwada to conserve water.
The central government is focusing on managing watersheds and linking rivers to move water to dry regions to combat the crisis in India, which has 17 percent of the world’s population but only 4 percent of fresh rain water resources.
But the need of the hour is smaller, cost-effective steps such as enforcing restrictions on water use and ensuring canals do not leak.
“Canals are leaking everywhere in Maharashtra. Only a third of water released from dams reaches farms,” said Pradeep Purandare, a water and irrigation specialist from Aurangabad. “There is complete mismanagement of water resources.”
