What’s Zero Day? The term originated in Cape Town, South Africa, when the government had to shut down water supply. How does it concern us?
Well…
According to NITI Ayog’s report, Delhi and other 20 other cities of India are likely to run out of water in less than two years’ time. The study is available on the think-tank’s website.
The report says the national capital is staring at an unfathomable crisis, with groundwater depleting continuously in the last two decades. Almost 90 per cent of the city has been categorised as semi-critical or critical in terms of groundwater levels.
Groundwater level in Delhi has been decreasing from 0.5 metre to over 2 metre every year at different places.
“Supply gaps are causing city dwellers to depend on privately extracted ground water, bringing down local water tables. In fact, by 2020, 21 major cities, including Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad are expected to reach zero groundwater levels,” the report claimed.
It further reads that most states have achieved less than 50 per cent score when it came to augmenting depleting groundwater resources.
NITI Aayog has also come out with a Composite Water Management Index to assess and improve the performance in management of water resources. It is the country’s first comprehensive and integrated national data set for water.
Unfortunately, low performers on the index house nearly 50 per cent of the country’s population, including the populous northern states of UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, and others. Thus, more than 600 million people are staring at a water disaster.
