Village women have to fetch water from far-away wells.

By IOL South Asia Correspondent

New Delhi, March 17 (IslamOnline.net) - A full-blown water crisis is coming India’s way as periodic riots in different parts of the country indicate. The fresh water scarcity is more prominent across cities where the poor have to queue for hours at public taps for a can of municipal water.

Of late such riots have become more frequent says a report, "Corporate Hijack of Water", prepared by experts and activists Vandna Shiva, Kunwar Jalees and others. The problem is as much of management as of natural availability. Privatization of water resources has widened the gap between the well off and the poor, it says.

“Water battles are fought almost daily in some parts in the big cities, where people have to sacrifice their night sleep and rise as early as three or four in the morning in order to collect water from municipal taps. The situation became so acute that the Jamnagar police had to open fire to quell water riots, resulting in the death of three persons in November 1999," the report says.

A recent report of the World Water Assessment Program that uses statistics from 23 United Nations agencies ranks India 120th out of a reckoning of 122 countries. The last two in this assessment made in terms of the quality of water available are Morocco and Belgium.

The report was released ahead of the Third World Forum on Water in Kyoto, Japan later this year. The above quoted reckoning also takes into account the assessed countries’ ability and commitment to improve the situation. In the reckoning, India, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Nigeria and Burkina Faso are just ahead of Belgium.

The lowest water availability country is Kuwait, followed by the Gaza Strip, UAE, Bahamas, Qatar and Maldives. The best quality water is available in Finland, followed by Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan and Norway.

The report says India is among 16 countries using more than 20 percent of their renewable water resources, which indicates impending water scarcity.

By 2030 South Asia will, on an average, would have reached the 40 percent level, a threshold used to flag the level countries are forced to make difficult choices between their agricultural and urban water supply sectors.

It says poor people have to pay significantly more for water than their better off counterparts. In Delhi, vendors charge the poor $4.8 per m³ while homes with piped water supply have to pay only $ 0.01 for the same quantity.

Environmentalist Anil Agarwal of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi has calculated that at least 100,000 Indian villages are faced with severe water shortage.

The report puts India at 133rd out of 180 countries in terms of water availability.

Nearly one million children in India die of diarrhea diseases every year directly as a result of drinking unsafe water and living in unhygienic conditions. Around 45 million people are affected by water quality problems like pollution, excess fluoride, iron, arsenic or pesticide contamination.

Much of the problem is because of wrong policies and lack of political will to rectify the situation. Some reorientation of priorities will also help as suggested by Indian economist Mahboobul Haq. He suggested that even 5-10 percent cut in defense spending in South Asia would release enough funds to largely solve the problem.