To cope with the looming threat of water stress, India must take cue from Singapore where people consume drinking water made from recycled wastewater. While the Delhi Jal Board has made a start, people’s support is a must

A meteoric rise in population, accompanied by climate change, has put immense pressure on earth’s natural resources. The continuing insatiable demand for natural resources has pushed the planet to the brink of an environmental crisis.

The blasé approach towards these precious natural resources is now resulting in severe shortages across the world, foremost of them being water scarcity. According to the World Resources Institute, about one-fifth of all countries in the world will face acute water shortage by 2040 as climate change disrupts rainfall patterns. Scarcity of water resources is already a serious problem as it affects every continent. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water.

According to the Falkenmark water stress index, a country or region is “water stressed” when annual water supplies drop below 1,700 cubic meters per person per year. The United Nations estimates that more than one in every six people in the world or nearly 1.1 billion people are water stressed, as they do not have access to potable water.

Water stress is ever intensifying in China and India; regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and West Asia contain the largest number of water-stressed nations with annual averages of 1,200 cubic meters of water per person. To make matters worse, much of the water-stressed population currently lives in river basins, where the usage of water resources greatly exceeds the renewal of the water source.

Water stress is one of the major challenges of the 21st century as extreme weather-related events, driven by climate change is resulting in widespread population migration, leading to some areas becoming more densely populated as compared to others.

These areas will eventually witness serious water shortages, leading to strife and violent conflicts. In order to avoid these conditions, it is pertinent to not only conserve fresh water resources, but also adopt practices that will help in recycling wastewater.

India may find the concept of drinking fully recycled wastewater alien or even repulsive, but the technology exists to make wastewater as pure as distilled water. Many countries are already actively pursuing this initiative in an effort to avoid water stress. 

Over 50 lakh residents in Singapore, for instance, consume drinking water made from recycled wastewater. Singapore is dependent on Malaysia for 50 per cent of its water needs, but since it started recycling wastewater to make drinking water, the country is fast moving towards self-reliance in water.

In fact, Singapore’s recycled wastewater exceeds the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s quality stipulations for drinking water and has catapulted the city-state to an authority on wastewater research.

India can emulate the Singapore model to ensure that citizens accept drinking water that has been recycled from wastewater. The Delhi Jal Board made an encouraging move in this direction in July this year, when the Sujal Dhara project was set up in the national capital to process wastewater into drinking water. It has a capacity of producing 80,000 liters of potable water everyday.

For a city that is dependent on its neighbouring States for its water needs, the Sujal Dhara project has the potential to solve Delhi’s water woes, provided the scheme is able to capture the peoples’ imagination and acceptance — both of which are currently missing.

Given this situation, it is crucial for the Government to play a pivotal role in ensuring positive publicity for the project, besides rolling out more such initiatives in quick succession.

In the age of information technology, knowledge can be an effective tool in molding public opinion. The Government must bank on inspiring global examples that are conveyed through social media in order to garner public support for its sustainable water resources initiatives.

For instance, the one billion dollar ‘toilet to tap’ programme by los Angeles county in the US is an ambitious initiative to turn wastewater to drinking water. Once completed, it will be the world’s largest wastewater purification plant.

But prior to actual commencement of the project, the authorities have ensured the support of the residents of los Angeles and surrounding counties by making them aware of the benefits of the programme. This has guaranteed the success of the project even before its formal launch.

With the looming threat of water stress and climate change, one single source of water cannot be enough guarantee of water security for India. There is an urgent need to supplement conventional water resources with supply from large-scale wastewater purification projects. For this to succeed, people’s acceptance and support for drinking water derived from wastewater is critical.