India spend writes…..
With 80% of districts in Karnataka and 72% in Maharashtra hit by drought and crop failure, 8.2 million farmers in these two states struggle to survive. More than 6,000 tankers supply water to 4,920 villages and 10,506 hamlets or settlements (bastis) in drought-hit Maharashtra daily, as a conflict brews between the two states over common water resources.
Further south, the Tamil Nadu government sanctioned Rs 233 crore for several emergency water projects, as the water supply in four reservoirs supplying water to Chennai dropped below 1% of their capacity, causing an acute water crisis, which shut down Chennai’s metro system. With piped water cut by 40%, people line up in queues for water tankers. They also complain of foul-smelling water, as if it were mixed with sewage.
Districts in Karnataka have shut schools for an extra week due to water scarcity. Short duration summer crops in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are taking a hit.
The situation is similar across India as the country is currently experiencing an acute water crisis, as we explain later. There is no respite in sight anytime soon as the southwest monsoon this year, responsible for 80% of India’s rainfall, is projected to be delayed and below normal in north and south India.
As of May 30, 2019, more than 43.4% of the country was reeling under drought, according to the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS), a real-time drought monitoring platform. And failed monsoon rains are the primary reason for the current situation. India has been experiencing widespread drought every year since 2015, with the exception of 2017, IndiaSpend reported on April 3, 2019.
The north-east monsoon, also known as ‘post-monsoon rainfall’ (October-December) that provides 10-20% of India’s rainfall, was deficient by 44% in 2018 from the long-term normal of 127.2 mm, as per data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This compounded the rainfall deficit in the southwest monsoon (June-September), which fell short by 9.4% in 2018–close to the 10% deficit range when the IMD declares a drought, said the IndiaSpend report.
The pre-monsoon rainfall (March 1-May 31) in 2019 was the lowest in 65 years.
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https://www.indiaspend.com/worldenvironmentday-600-million-indians-face-acute-water-crisis/