Water Sustainability in Urban India: Challenges and Growing Concerns

Introduction

Imagine a sweltering summer day, with people of an overcrowded informal settlement standing in restless silence, eyes fixed on the horizon where a water tanker might appear—if it came at all. Their taps had long since run dry, and the neighborhood pump exhaled only dust. Every five days, the tanker groaned through the narrow lanes, its rusted frame carrying too little for too many. Chaos erupted the moment its valves opened—fists flew, voices cracked, and the strongest clawed their way to the front while the frail and the weary stood back, resigned to another cycle of deprivation. As the last drop splattered onto the sun-scorched ground, the tanker rumbled away, leaving behind nothing but broken hopes and grim uncertainty.

Sounds like a scene from a dystopian film, doesn’t it? And yet, this is no fiction—this is Delhi, the heart of our capital, where access to water is uncertain, dictated by scarcity and desperation, turning an essential human need into a daily struggle for survival.

Water sustainability in urban environments is now considered not only an environmental issue but also a socio-political and governance issue. In most Indian cities, water stress is increasing due to urbanization, population growth, and climate change. Indian cities urgently need holistic and sustainable water management strategies to address these growing challenges.

In this chapter of our water sustainability series, we will discuss the present situation of urban water in India and the key challenges hindering its sustainability.

Water Demand vs. Supply Gap

 The demand for water in the urban areas of India is rising exponentially. By 2030, India’s water demand is expected to be twice the available supply, and many cities will face severe shortages. NITI Aayog’s report, titled “Composite Water Management Index,” published in 2018, mentions that 21 major Indian cities, including the national capital, Delhi, IT hub Bengaluru, and coastal city Chennai, will run dry of groundwater by 2020, affecting around 100 million people. If left unchecked, urbanization, industrialization, and poor water management will have widened the demand-supply deficit, making sustainable water management a necessity rather than a choice.

Major Water Sources and Their Declining Reserves

 When it comes to sourcing fresh water, Indian cities mostly rely on three primary sources of water: surface water (rivers, lakes, and reservoirs), groundwater, and rainwater. However, with the ever-declining reserves of freshwater, each of these sources is under severe stress:

• Surface water: Fresh water sources like the Yamuna, Ganga, and Godavari are heavily polluted by industrial and domestic waste discharge.
• Groundwater: More than 50% of the urban water requirement is fulfilled by extracting groundwater, but rapid depletion and poor urban planning have led many cities, including Delhi and Chennai, to see steep declines in water tables.
• Rainwater: Although these cities receive significant rainfall every year, they are unable to tap this resource properly. Poor rainwater-harvesting infrastructure and a lack of social awareness in these cities lead to extensive water runoff and eventually become the primary cause of flooding in the urban areas rather than recharging the groundwater.

Urban Water Infrastructure: Aging and Inadequate

Most Indian cities have outdated and inefficient water infrastructure, with dried-up reservoirs, faulty pipes, and a lack of oversight. NRW (Non-Revenue Water), caused by leakage, theft, and a proper lack of maintenance, is affecting approximately 40 percent of the urban water supply. Also, many cities lack adequate sewage treatment plants, resulting in pollution of these natural water sources.

Key Challenges to Water Sustainability

Depleting Groundwater Reserves

Groundwater over-extraction with no corresponding recharge mechanisms has led to drastic depletion across major urban areas. The data from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) shows that the groundwater levels in the major Indian cities have dropped progressively over the last decade. The recharge rates are still unable to match up with the extraction, and therefore, the urban aquifers are running dry at an alarmingly rapid rate.

Water Pollution and Choked Drains: A Menace to Health

With new industries and urban centers booming across the country, water sources in the urban areas are getting increasingly polluted by their raw sewage and untreated industrial wastes. According to the reports, more than 70% of surface water in India is contaminated and thus unfit for consumption. Industrial activities pollute rivers and lakes with heavy metals, while domestic wastewater is treated poorly to be dissolved in water supply systems, causing water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid, among others.

And it’s not just the industries; most drains and nalas are clogged in urban centers like Delhi and Gurgaon. Polluted and clogged drains are another reason for urban flooding and outbreaks of water-borne diseases. It is reported that around 78% of Delhi dump garbage on the roadside or in open plots in their neighborhoods. Come monsoon, this garbage ends up in drains and open nalas, eventually choking them and aggravating urban flooding.

Climate Change: An Uncertain Enemy

Ever-changing climate patterns further enhance urban water stress by altering rainfall patterns, causing more frequent droughts, and intensifying urban flooding. Large cities like Mumbai and Chennai have faced extreme weather events these last couple of years,  experiencing both water shortages and floods within the same year. With the mercury on the rise every summer, it has hastened the evaporation rates from these already dwindling water bodies, further reducing available water reserves.

Water Inequality and Social Responsibility

The distribution of water in urban areas is still highly unequal, and marginalized communities are most likely to be affected by these shortages. While high-income areas usually get clean and safe water supply through pipes, informal settlements and low-income areas struggle with intermittent water supply or occasionally no supply at all, forcing residents to rely on private tankers at unaffordable rates.

Despite schools bringing water management strategies and water conservation initiatives to their curriculum and urbanites being morally aware of practices like rainwater harvesting, proper plumbing layouts, and water recycling systems, there’s much more that can be done. Aggravated by an already aging water infrastructure and an ever-growing gap between demand and supply, most urbanites lack a sense of urgency and community awareness to implement proper measures for water security.

The need of the hour is for a 360-degree approach to the water management issues at hand—both in society and in every household—complemented by a sense of social consciousness to embrace water access for all.

Conclusion

Stories like that of the water-starved colony in Delhi are no longer a dystopian threat—they are as real as it gets. With an ever-growing population, increasing water pollution, and climate variability, the challenges of urban water sustainability are real and require immediate and comprehensive action. These challenges need a multi-stakeholder approach involving government intervention, technological innovations, and community participation. Although policy actions and investment in infrastructure are important, communities must equally be responsible and put in their collective efforts to ensure water sustainability. Only through promoting a culture of collective responsibility can we aid the sustainability initiatives by our policymakers and move toward a future where clean water is not a privilege but a basic right for everyone.

Now that these challenges have been addressed, we will dive into multi-dimensional approaches to water sustainability and various ways to build community awareness in our next blog to shape a more secure water future for our country. Stay tuned!

Raj Kashyap Das – Content Strategist, Sambodhi