The South Asia water crisis is here. A hundred million people will be affected to begin with

Climate refuges: “The report also says that 40 per cent of India’s population will have no access to drinking water by 2030.

News from India says that 21 cities with about a hundred million people, will run out of groundwater by 2020.

The situation is alarming, given the fact that year 2020 is not very far. Three rivers, four water bodies, five wetlands and six forests have completely dried in Chennai despite having better water resources and rains than any other metro cities, the report said. “(from www.republicworld.com/…)

The South Asia water crisis is here. A hundred million people will be affected to begin with

Jun 24, 2019 5:28am PDT

27750380 10102800558874556 6414407201683904206 n

Attribution:
Being from Boston, I was just thrilled to meet another Red Sox fan while traveling through Rajasthan India in 2014. I was there in November and it was plenty hot that time of year.

by guavaboy

Early this month there were record high temperatures in Delhi ( 48 c which is 118.4 f) and in Churu, halfway between Delhi and Bikaner where it was 50.8 c.

I travelled in that region in November 2014, and of course I took a four-day camel trek. It was plenty hot that time of year, so much so that we had to take a three hour siesta each day under whatever bushes we could find. We were in the Thar desert of Rajasthan if you really must know.

Chennai is out of water now.

Time lapse satellite photo of Chennai reservoir disappearing: https://twitter.com/i/status/1142187650499121152

News from India says that 21 cities with about a hundred million people, will run out of groundwater by 2020. Yes folks, that’s next year.

Twenty one cities in India including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad – will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting around 100 million people, claims a report by NITI Ayog.

The report also says that 40 per cent of India’s population will have no access to drinking water by 2030.The situation is alarming, given the fact that year 2020 is not very far. Three rivers, four water bodies, five wetlands and six forests have completely dried in Chennai despite having better water resources and rains than any other metro cities, the report said. (from www.republicworld.com/…)

www.republicworld.com/…

I looked up NITI Ayog, wondering how legitimate they are. Turns out they are part of the Government of India.

The National Institution for Transforming India, also called NITI Aayog, was formed via a resolution of the Union Cabinet on January 1, 2015. NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. While designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States.

The Government of India, in keeping with its reform agenda, constituted the NITI Aayog to replace the Planning Commission instituted in 1950. This was done in order to better serve the needs and aspirations of the people of India. An important evolutionary change from the past, NITI Aayog acts as the quintessential platform of the Government of India to bring States to act together in national interest, and thereby fosters Cooperative Federalism.

Add this to a recent report that the glaciers of the Himalaya are melting twice as fast as previously thought.

And a report by an international team of scientists started with:

The Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) is a crucially important region for South Asia and China. These mountains are the ‘Water Towers of Asia’, providing water to 1.3 billion people. However, the warming trend in the HKH is higher than the global average –a cause for grave concern. There is no other place in the world where so many people are being affected by climate change so rapidly.

The change is here folks, faster than we ever thought.