Monsoon Delayed, Two Indian States Declare Drought
Monsoon - said to be India’s true Finance Minister and an indicator of the country’s water and livelihood security – has had a delayed arrival this year.
And when it came, it has been more variable than ever before in recent recorded history. Drought and floods have hit the country and put it under a great water stress. The situation is being monitored very closely and the Indian Government is ready with a contingency plan.
Two states have been declared drought hit and the Indian Agriculture Minister has expressed his concern over food production this year. Water wars have already begun in the country that has otherwise been giving a good fight to the global financial crisis. Not sure if its climate change or a result of rapid urbanization, or both, but India certainly needs to do a lot to secure its water resources for today and tomorrow.
A few weeks back, it was said that the El Nino weather conditions this year are a result of the monsoon failure in India. However, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) soon clarified that not all El Nino weather patterns lead to monsoon failure. The country facing a dry spell is most parts still awaits the usual monsoon showers. The monsoon is crucial for summer-sown (Kharif) crops. Most marginal farmers rely solely on monsoon showers and are hugely impacted by weak monsoon.
India is one of the rapidly urbanizing countries in the world. At the same time, it also has a majority of population living in villages. This has made the country’s water demand variable as well. Water usage has to be shared between the villages and the new consumption patterns of the emerging cities Most of the recently evolved urban centers are such that they cannot afford even a few days delay in the monsoon, let alone monsoon failure.
Thus, a lot needs to be reworked for sustaining India’s growth and the nation can only afford a development based on the principles of sustainability. This is something the policy makers sitting within the Government will have to understand – the sooner, the better for all of us. A development that also gives room to the understanding that any development today is actually climate constrained.
Image courtesy Al Gore via The Climate Project-India
El Nino historically has generally led to reduced Indian rainfall and would appear to be the prime culprit. The worrying aspects are that a) the effects of El Nino are likely to be exaggerated further by future climate changes and b) 24% of India’s power comes from hydroelectric power stations, leaving the country’s emerging economy crucially exposed to the resultant drought cycles.
[...] participation of women in even greater strength. Consequently, at least one of the states in India (and a drought hit one) has now declared reservation for women in all local water governing bodies at all [...]