As the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts a hotter summer and longer heat waves from April to June, India must also prepare for water stress. The challenge is that we are programmed to consider acute stresses (heat, water, or extreme weather) as temporary, to be handled often as disaster relief. We must move from panic reactions when disaster strikes (like the water crisis in Bengaluru), to understand and respond to the chronic nature of risks we face. Moreover, climate action cannot be left to a few sectors or businesses. Nor can environmental sustainability be reduced to sapling plantation drives over a few days.
This Earth Day (April 22) should be a wake-up call. The climate is the economy now, and the economic production frontier will expand or shrink depending on how we understand the intersections between land, food, energy and water.
India houses 18% of the world’s population on 2.4% of the earth’s surface area and has just 4% of global freshwater resources. Nearly half its rivers are polluted, and 150 of its primary reservoirs are currently at just 38% of their total live storage capacity. Further, it is the largest user of groundwater in the world. And three-quarters of India’s districts are hotspots for extreme climate events.
