Time for a policy to declare ‘urban drought’ to end hardships of poor women in India

In fact, as we write this piece, India is battling with two extreme weather conditions in two different regions.  According to just released IMD data, while the northern part of the country is experiencing an extended winter season, the southern region is already battling with heatwave conditions, proving the predictions for the southern region right. 

The summer has set in, much before its arrival time, and that has already become the norm for about two decades now.  Going by predictions of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), made in first week of March, the March-May period this year may witness ‘above normal’ summer in North Indian states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Parts of the southern and north-eastern regions of the country may also experience the same summer condition.

The forecast has also said that “this season, average maximum temperatures in Himachal Pradesh, West Rajasthan, Konkan, Goa, Coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh are likely to be higher than normal by 0.5-1.0 degree Celsius.” The IMD predicts that there is 37 percent probability of maximum temperature in 2019 being above normal for the core heatwave zones of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telengana.

In fact, as we write this piece, India is battling with two extreme weather conditions in two different regions.  According to just released IMD data, while the northern part of the country is experiencing an extended winter season, the southern region is already battling with heatwave conditions, proving the predictions for the southern region right. 

The first news about heatwave preparedness came from Kerala this year. The state’s labour department has issued an order that makes mandatory afternoon breaks for workers in order to avoid sunstroke. The circular came into effect from February 28, news reports said.  Workers need to stay indoors between 12 pm and 3 pm during summer months, according to this circular.  Other governments in the heatwave zone will start their actions soon. Heatwave deaths have been a major concern for about two decades. 

Summer comes with another big challenge: water scarcity. Ironically, our cities do not call it a ‘drought’ because drought has been associated, in official documents and perceptions, as something to do with crop failure associated with monsoon.  Drought, therefore, is officially declared in the country after crop cutting is done. 

The water challenge

Summers are expanding beyond their conventional season. Urban areas depend on rivers, groundwater and surface water bodies for their water supplies. Dry summers, that are getting harsher due to increasing heat, start drying up our water sources.  The last decade has been witnessing record warming globally.  In fact, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), that was released during the COP 24 climate summit at Katowice, 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years.  2018 has been the fourth warmest year so far.  The warming trend is obvious and continuing, the WMO said.

In the first week of March last year, water level of major 91 reservoirs of the nation was only 36 percent of total live storage capacity, as per reports of the Central Water Commission (CWC).  Just in about a month, the capacity had reduced by 7 percent.  This year, at the end of February, the average water level status of these 91 major reservoirs is positioned at a better place at 40 percent. 

The country is already facing persistent water crisis, that’s getting severe by the years.  Water supply to urban areas will get affected if various reservoirs that supply water to them dry up.  That also means the urban areas will directly be in a confrontation with the farmers.  And we have been witnessing such conflicts during the last decade and more.  Large dams and reservoirs have been a conventional way our engineers and planners have been propagating to address water supply and other needs.  However, the way these reservoirs are shrinking in their capacity due to various factors – one important among them being climate change and related heat – taps dependent on these reservoirs would dry up fast. 

Data released last year by a new early warning satellite system revealed that India is among four countries in the world where the shrinking reservoirs are already leading to doomsday water crisis scenarios.  The developers of this satellite system that is working for 500,000 dams across the world found out that reservoirs in India, Morocco, Iraq and Spain could spark the next “day zero” water crisis as the one seen in Cape Town. 

Giving example of two reservoirs connected to the Narmada River, this study found out how the farmers have been at loss as the government had to ensure drinking water to at least 30 million people.  Going by priorities listed in our water policies, that’s right.  However, going by realities in the field, that is a huge matter of worry as this may lead to serious conflicts between farmers and urban dwellers. 

Poor women most affected

The informal settlements in urban areas witness a daily fight for water.  The women, who have the responsibility of fetching water for their families have to suffer severe stress under the sun.  Be it public taps or tankers, that become the major source of water for the urban poor, the struggle gets harder during drought years.  And under such circumstances, use of household toilets bring more burden for the women, as generally in India, women have to fetch water for everyone in the family – be it for drinking, bathing or washing themselves after using toilets. 

While we have no policy to declare a drought in the urban areas, there is no recognition of the women folks’ contribution either.  They have to go through mental, physical, social and economic hardships while fetching water from the public taps and tankers. 

Unfortunately, our policy makers have taken it for granted that provision of a public tap or water through tankers amounts to fulfilling their responsibility towards the urban poor.  This needs to change and with urgency, as climate change is going to make water availability, hence urban poor women’s hardship, further worse. 

It’s time we need to think of a policy to declare urban drought.  This would mean we must supply safe water at the doorstep of each person and/or family.  However, as that will take time and we need to still depend on public taps and tankers for several years – and perhaps for decades – it is time to compensate the women for their health and economic loss due to extra time given for fetching water.  The age-old social practice of burdening women with the job of collecting water for the family needs to be fought with massive awareness campaigns.  We need to adopt all these suggestions in rural areas as well.

This article was originally published in Urban Update