
Expert Says Indians Will Soon Be Water Refugees Heading for Water-Rich Europe - rblion
https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/j5ygy7/expert-says-indians-will-soon-become-water-refugees-heading-for-water-rich-europe
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Santosh83
Water scarcity is not the biggest problem in India. It is gross water
mismanagement at every level and public and political ignorance and apathy.
The summer this year was extraordinarily hot and our place was under severe
water scarcity, but the rainy season hasn't even started and we've already got
almost 6 months worth of rainfall for my city. The problem is most of that
water is not allowed to go into the ground and recharge the groundwater since
almost every single inch is cemented or tarred and it runs-off into the sea or
evaporates back. There is sufficient rainfall to meet the needs of most
regions on India but due to a large number of causes the water is not
conserved or utilised properly.

Some of the causes are deforestation of hill slopes, large, ill-planned dams
which are silting over, lack of water micro-management, storm-water drains
instead of recharge wells, lack of rainwater harvesting, excessive
consumption, encroachment of nearly every water-body, pollution of most of the
remaining lakes and rivers etc. etc. It goes on and on. The point is India
does get enough rainwater despite very hot summers, but human management sucks
abysmally.

~~~
kranner
> the rainy season hasn't even started and we've already got almost 6 months
> worth of rainfall for my city.

I presume you're in Tamil Nadu because TN's rainy season is mostly due to the
NE monsoon which hasn't started yet. Rainfall in the North-Western regions
like Punjab really has been insufficient in past years. In many regions in
Punjab it simply doesn't rain in the 'rainy season' anymore. Even in Tamil
Nadu, didn't Chennai experience more than a 50% deficit in 2018?[1] When I
visited Pondicherry a few years ago, everyone I spoke to said it now rains
very little compared to the usual. This year's SW monsoon has seen heavy rains
but it seems to be an outlier compared to the past few years.

You are correct that there is gross water mismanagement and unplanned
urbanisation. Ironically, Chennai's National Institute of Ocean Technology --
one of whose jobs is to prepare impact assessment reports on 'the implications
of constructing on waterbodies'[2] -- is itself constructed on a paved-over
former catchment area (and gets flooded as a result).[3]

[1] [https://weather.com/en-
IN/india/monsoon/news/2018-12-23-hist...](https://weather.com/en-
IN/india/monsoon/news/2018-12-23-historic-low-northeast-monsoon-rainfall-in-
chennai)

[2] [https://qz.com/india/563396/chennai-floods-are-not-a-
natural...](https://qz.com/india/563396/chennai-floods-are-not-a-natural-
disaster-theyve-been-created-by-greedy-town-planners-and-dumb-engineers/)

[3] [https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/natural-disasters/why-
ch...](https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/natural-disasters/why-chennai-
floods-are-a-man-made-disaster-51980)

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mtw
There was a report that the Syrian civil war started with droughts forcing
whole regions to emigrate to Damascus and then unemployed farmers starting to
march in the streets. I can't imagine what might happen if the same level of
drought occur in South-east asia. War? Civil war? Revolution ? The nuclear
weapons stored there makes this a danger for everyone on the planet

~~~
megous
[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-
links...](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-
conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html)

Causes of Syrian war are a bit more complicated than what you say. Marches
don't necessarily lead to war.

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Merrill
As populations increase and resource shortages of various types become severe,
migration and even travel will be shut down. The IT infrastructure and AI will
allow trade to continue without travel.

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peteretep
Europe’s a long way away compared to verdant South East Asia tho

~~~
nudpiedo
It's not just that east Asia is not much welcoming to immigrants, also the
opportunities offered are much different. In addition if you have to move away
with your family/from your people 1000km you might as well just move them 7000
more and be in a country which also speaks English and that offers social
programs, free studies and other benefits.

~~~
pon1es
So it's not actually about water.

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wtdata
India has 3x the population density of European Union. Surely the problem
starts there.

~~~
denzil_correa
Bahrain has 3x the population density of India while Monaco is 56x more dense
than India. Yet, the problem doesn't seem to manifest in those countries.

~~~
colsandurz
And the square foot below me has 575x the density of Monaco and there are no
problems here!

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british_india
The British left India with a pressurized, always-on water system. Through
lack of maintenance, most of that water system is no longer pressurized--the
water comes on intermittently. That leads to the common practice by water
consumers of having a pump on their end to fill their local cistern.

Since the originally-British water system was not maintained, it now leaks.
So, unlike a pressurized water system--where leaks cause water to LEAVE the
system, a non-pressurized system--as Indians now have--combined with the
aforementioned pumps, makes it so leaky pipes cause outside filth to ENTER the
system. Combine that with the practice of co-locating sewer lines in the same
trenches as water lines, means that when the water comes on and individual
pumps kick in, causes sewage water to enter the water system and be pulled
into people's cisterns. That's why any Indian household like this must use
reverse osmosis to make their water potable.

All because the pressurized water system was allowed to go derelict.

