Who cares a damn about drought?

“Mama, what’s the big deal about water? Just give them Pepsi instead.” That is a reaction of an eight-year-old urban kid to the famine sweeping across the country. Words which reflect the tragedy and brutality of India today as 10 States battle drought, debt and death affecting over a staggering 33 crore people that is about 25 per cent of the country’s population.

Imagine four train loads of water are the lifeline for 128 villages and 12 towns in Rajasthan. These trains fetch 6 million litres from Jodhpur for 4 lakh people in Pali. In Andhra Pradesh, only 34 out of 116 municipalities get regular water for an hour twice a week.

In UP the situation is so bad that police officers are forced to escort tankers as dabang mafia hijacks them. In Aurangabad, three crore people depend on tankers for water supply! Official statistics aver that 2.55 lakh villages in 254 districts are drought affected and 637 villages facing acute water shortage. Worse, so severe is famine that not only farmers are committing suicide but it has resulted in a full blown public health crisis.

Whereby, doctors in drought-struck regions are putting off surgeries as there is no water even to wash their hands! Take Latur, its five lakh population’s lifeline are water tankers which come every two-three days. Worse, this water is so polluted that people are contracting diseases like jaundice, typhoid and gastroentities.

Juxtapose this with that over 10,000 litres of water was wasted to create a temporary helipad for the Union Agriculture Minister to visit a famine-hit district in Haryana. And two tankers were emptied to prevent dust from rising from a road being visited by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a drought-affected district.

Less said the better about the over three lakh litres of water being required to maintain a cricket pitch. With 60 matches being played in the ongoing ninth season of the IPL it translates into over 1.8 lakh crores litres of water. It has brought things to such a pass that the Bombay High Court rapped the Maharashtra Government for its shoddiness in dealing with the acute water crisis resulting in farmers committing suicide and forced it to shift IPL matches from the State.

“People are dying. You are not serious. This is not some picnic….How can you waste water on stadiums. Are people more important or IPL matches?” Trust our rhino-skinned netas to now approach the Supreme Court to allow the matches. Simply because IPL is a fizzy cocktail of big bucks, million dollar boys, Bollywood sirens and superstars, business magnates and beautiful women, airline tycoons, glitterati and chatteratti, razzmatazz entertainment topped by skimpily clad cheerleaders et al.

Questionably, so caught up is everybody in the IPL that none cares a damn about drought, farmers’ suicide, rural distress etc. All dismiss it as a bad dream. Alas, our leaders don’t know the reality of Asli Bharat. Worse, they don’t care a damn. Bluntly, our politicians who follow the dictum ‘might is right’ have not only lost the plot but are out of sync with the reality: The search for water has become the most harrowing, cruel ling and frustrating task for 21st century India.

Contrary to earlier beliefs that water scarcity was confined to urban areas due to lop-sided development and large scale migration, the problem has enveloped the countryside too. This is not all. Since about 67 per cent of the population is still dependent on rain, groundwater continues to be lifted indiscriminately. Consequently, there is a sharp drop of 3 to 5 per cent every year in the water tables (from 20-30 ft to 300-400 ft).

In some areas all the three levels of soil stand exhausted. Add to this, no plans are in the pipeline to decongest highly populated areas, which result in too many tubewells and a lowering of the groundwater table. The misery is compounded by the fact that the lakes and water resources are fast drying up. The ground water level is going down fast. In Hyderabad, the magnificent Usman Sagar has dried up. In Gujarat’s Saurashtra and Kutch regions, there is no water at the depth of 1200 ft. over 2.5 crore people are in distress.

Drought has wreaked havoc all around. A study reveals that over 203 of the 401 class II towns get less than 100 litres of water per person per day. In Rajasthan, 10 towns get water once in three days and 31 in two days. With basins and rivers drying up, the country’s food security is being threatened. Our leaders need to pull up their socks, end their reckless drift. Offering pies in the sky and indulging in zubaani jama kharch is no substitute for much-needed pragmatism. Remember, words will not quench India’s growing thirst!

By Poonam I Kaushish