With 31 cities exposed to serious water security risks, India has run into a greater challenge than entire continents of Africa or Europe, data from a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) show. Consequently, India faces the second highest basin risk in the world, only better than Palestine.
The analysis, ‘Water Risk Filter’, focuses on two things — water stress cities face now and the projected increase by 2050. “If you go just by water risk now and that projected for 2050, Indian cities dominate the list of cities facing very high water risk,” Ariane Laporte-Bisquit, international lead on the project, told TOI.
On a scale of 1 to 5, anything over 3 is ‘high risk’ and over 4 is ‘very high risk’. Of the 31 Indian cities that are under water stress, 26 scored over 4, meaning they face ‘very high risk’ right now. The second worst placed region in the world, west Asia, has only six such cities. Asia (barring China) has five, North America has three, China has two, central America has one. None of the other continents has any city facing very high water risk. Globally, the steepest escalation has been projected for Alexandria in Egypt, with a 16% spike by 2050. The highest increase in risk among Indian cities has been projected for Jaipur (11%) and Indore (10%).
Full report on www.toi.in