BLOG
July 6th, 2013
Via Forbes, a report on India’s water crisis:
Even as the numbers of dead and missing rose from the disastrous floods in the Himalayan rivers, it was a water calamity of a different kind in southern India. In coastal Chennai, a base to automakers and IT services firms, a severe water shortage pushed several companies to the brink of a shutdown last week. In a suburban stretch known as OMR, top Indian IT firms such as Tata Consultancy Services , Infosys and Cognizant depend on erratic supply by private water tankers, and were rendered dry by striking tanker operators. Chennai’s IT companies, second only to Bangalore in providing IT services to the biggest American and European corporations, came very close to losing millions of dollars per workday.
While much has been said about India’s energy crisis, businesses are waking to the realization that an even greater catastrophe is round the corner. “Around the country, industry understands that water will become its biggest constraint, sometimes even bigger than energy,†said Rohini Nilekani, chairperson of the non-profit Arghyam which works on water and sanitation-related issues. The crisis in Chennai is absolutely typical of water conflicts arising everywhere, she said.
India has a regulatory vacuum with regard to groundwater, and it is a free-for-all market when it comes to extraction and pricing. Water sector reform is underway, including a framework of federal and state level rules with regard to river and ground water. But as is typical in India, delays and painful negotiations can be expected before any consensus is reached on matters of allocation, extraction and the environment. In an economy shifting from agriculture to industry to services, every allocated drop will be fiercely fought over.
In Chennai, a city that boasts of good industrial ‘infrastructure’, companies in the OMR area do not have access to city water supply and cannot mine groundwater. They rely on a network of water truck operators who ferry in water from nearby villages and charge them heftier-than-regular rates. India’s energy crisis necessitated businesses to operate generators and energy plants to meet their own needs. Similarly, an informal market of water supply has risen up to meet the needs of business not just in Chennai but in Bangalore, Gurgaon and elsewhere.
According to a 2011 industry survey by lobby group Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, 60 % of the respondents said that availability of water is impacting their business. Even more, 87 % said that water constraints will impact their business within the next decade. There is a new sense of urgency with regard to water. “Businesses and industry will have to adjust to the new normal. This is not about jugaad anymore but about proper planning and management based on sound principles,†said Nilekani. The business future, she said, is about water wisdom starting with design of plants and offices, water efficiency, water reuse and recycling and the readiness to pay the full and true ecological and other cost of water.