Inderjit seeks urgent action to save city from Day Zero

Gurgaon: This city has seen a decline in forest cover (19% to 9%), a fall in the number of ponds (641 to 124), and a drop in the groundwater level (10 metres below ground level to 30mbgl). Development has been so haphazard that double the groundwater has been extracted than recharged. These are the numbers that tell us that Day Zero – the moment when Gurgaon runs out of water – is not far off.
It was to highlight the gravity of the situation that WeForWater, a not-for-profit that endeavours to make India ‘water positive’, brought together stakeholders from across society to drive home the message that we can no longer take water – or nature – for granted.
Rao Inderjit Singh, union minister and MP for Gurgaon, spoke of how the city – and by extension the country – literally faces a watershed moment. “Do we take the road to prosperity or the road to destruction?” he asked.
“We either go the way of Mesopotamia or Rakhigarhi, thriving cities that perished because of acute water shortage, or we go the way of Egypt, which was able to harvest the waters of the Nile judiciously,” he told the audience.
“The government and citizenry must join hands to ensure that we don’t run out of water, and that Gurgaon doesn’t become a dust-ridden town.”
According to a study on groundwater levels carried out by the irrigation department last year, 99 out of 169 villages in Gurgaon district fall in the ‘red’ zone, which equates to a depth of 30 metres and above. It was the first time that the water table had been mapped in villages, and it demonstrated in stark fashion that the city might go the Chennai (2019) or Bangalore (2016) way if urgent steps are not taken.
Indeed, data, the NGO’s Shubhi Kesarwani stressed, is key to bringing a balance back to nature, and to our lives. “Digital mapping of aquifers should be the first step towards effective water management,” she said.
It is predicted that by 2030, India’s demand for water will be double its supply. The message, then, was that we ignore the warning signs at our own peril.