The country of India is running out of water — quickly.
What We Know:
- A total of 21 major cities are poised to run out of groundwater next year, according to a 2018 report by government-run think tank NITI Aayog. Groundwater makes up 40 percent of the countries’ water supply.
- With a heatwave this summer that has killed at least 137 people and the typical monsoon rains being less frequent than usual, this is becoming a major crisis.
- The reservoirs are also suffering, with two-thirds of them running below normal water levels, the countries’ Central Water Commission stated in June.
- To help with the present issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently created the Ministry of Jal Shakti (water power) to work on finding and maintaining water sources in the country.
- Despite this step, some of India’s cities are already being hit. For example, the four reservoirs that supply Chennai (India’s sixth-largest city) are almost completely out of water.
- Citizens are being forced to reuse dirty water and have to wait hours each day to fill pots from government water tanks just to keep moving.
- Currently, 600 million people are dealing with water shortages across the nation with 200,000 people dying each year due to inadequate or unsafe water supplies, according to the NITI Aayog report.
Praying that a solution to this disaster comes soon.
