31 Indian cities could face very high water risk by 2050: WWF

NEW DELHI: Over 30 Indian cities including Delhi, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Amritsar could face a very high water risk in the next few decades according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature’s Water Risk Filter released on Monday, November 2. Unless urgent action is taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change, hundreds of millions of people in cities across the globe could face dramatically increased water risks. This has been revealed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s new water risk scenarios.

The Filter is a tool to assess various risks including physical scarcity of water due to aridity, water depletion, pollution’ fragmentation of river ecosystems; projections for flooding; regulatory and policy risks; climate change etc. As per the assessment’s mapping, the entire nation is at a very high risk of acute water scarcity in the coming years due to various factors. Detailed results indicate that by 2050, north, west and peninsular India could face extreme water risk.

The Filter’s country profile for India states that the water quality in India has deteriorated severely over the years due to various reasons like soil erosion, deforestation, overgrazing, desertification, air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicular emissions, water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides.

According to Sejal Worah, Programme Director, WWF India, the developing nature of India puts its cities at the forefront of both its growth and sustainability. In order to break away from the vicious loops of flooding and water scarcity, India needs to quickly adopt nature-based solutions like restoration of urban watersheds and wetlands.

India’s country profile according to Nature’s Water Risk Filter states that water in the upper reaches of rivers in India is clean. However, the exploitative nature of cities, agricultural and industrial activities and the lack of wastewater treatment plants in the middle and lower reaches of most rivers, is mainly responsible for the degradation of surface water quality. The Filter further states that 100 cities that are expected to suffer the greater rise in water risk by the year 2050 are home to atleast 350 million people, as well as nationally and globally important economies.

It is further estimated that populations in high water risk areas could increase from 17 per cent in 2020 to 51 per cent in 2050. It is worrisome that close to half of the 100 cities are located in China.