Women with blue gold

Women, the traditional gatherers, are the seekers of ‘blue gold’ in India. But few stop to think of this activity as a major loss for the country.

So what new adornment is blue gold? It is the drinking water that the privileged generally take for granted. About 2 billion people around the world are dependent on freshwater for their daily use, but increasing rural numbers are being forced into water-stressed conditions. In the dry regions, women and girls walk miles each day to find and collect pots and buckets of ground water, even from polluted ponds or wells, to carry back on their heads.

On this issue especially, the gender inequality is stark in rural India. For women, the designated crisis managers, hauling and storing water becomes a daily chore in addition to managing the home, the livestock, field labour etc, leaving them no respite from drudgery. Girls are socialized early into the process that becomes their work for life. Carrying water loads two or three times a day, or watching over younger siblings is often considered adequate “schooling” for the future. The wastage of resources is in millions of woman-days, which can be translated into the loss of billions of rupees for the country.

Although the proportion of water on the planet is much larger than land, about 97.5 percent is saline, unsuitable for drinking, irrigation, industry etc. Moreover, the bulk of the remaining 2.5 percent freshwater is locked up as glaciers and snow on mountaintops. Less than one-third of this quantity may be in ground water. A UN resolution (July 2010) includes it under human rights, yet the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is not within the grasp of millions of people living below the poverty line. Their numbers are on the rise. 

  
In India, the water crisis is largely related to modernization. Projects designed to take the country forward have not been completely thought through. The  ‘green revolution’ in food production, like the high-yield paddy crops introduced for all year cultivation in the ’70s, is water-intensive processes that have raised the freshwater requirements of agriculture to 73 percent. Heavy industry, especially the energy sector comprising coal, oil, thermal and nuclear power, account for another 22 percent of consumption.

The developmental projects have interfered with the natural processes. For instance, the state of West Bengal, in the eastern sector, is home to about 8 percent of India’s population. It is not a traditionally dry region. The river Ganges divides the state into two unequal halves – North and South. This mighty waterway, replenished annually by the heavy monsoon rains of the region, has been meeting the needs of populations residing on its banks for centuries. In the present day, however, the northern districts cope with floods during the monsoon season, while the southern districts are prone to drought-like conditions. 

Much of the ‘fault’ here may be attributed to the erection of dams. Fact is other states demand a share of West Bengal's aqua wealth. These dams that were meant to resolve their water problems were constructed at places that have turned out ecologically and economically unsound for this state. In the process of water diversions, new issues were created. West Bengal's reservoirs are not only deprived of their essential inlet requirements, their capacities choke with high levels of silt sedimentation.

Further, corporate and political indifference to the proper treatment of industrial wastes and sewage cause the habitual pollution of precious ground water. In addition, burgeoning populations of the region have led to the consumption needs spiraling upwards. The indiscriminate landfilling of natural ponds and lakes to promote housing complexes, cut off the traditional inlets to recharging the water table, and thus intensify the spread of aridity.

The disruption of the water cycle has in addition, led to increased concentrations of arsenic, fluoride and pesticides leaching into ground water. The usable water now reportedly stands at 40 percent. Although much of West Bengal’s water issues are attributed to the abuse of water resources, their political resolutions do not appear imminent. The public resistance to new energy technologies stems from fears of further industrial inroads on the freshwater requirements.

Changing weather patterns have exacerbated the problem. Feeble pre- and post-monsoon rains fail to adequately replenish ground water. The signs first appeared in wells in blocks of the southern districts of Murshidabad, Medinipur, Burdwan and Hoogly in the 1980s. This drop in the water table became significant over the period 1995-2004, with hand-pump after hand-pump in their thousands falling dry. 

Furthermore, the widespread use of unclean water for domestic, farming and irrigation needs creates health hazards. About 26 million people, not to mention livestock, are estimated to be at risk from drinking contaminated water, especially in the poverty-stricken rural areas. Sadly, some corporate bodies hope to only profit from the problem by making drinking water a saleable commodity.

To top it all, it had been claimed that tapping into the water table causes it to drop down further, so there have been no solutions to look forward to, just a dark and dreary future stretching endlessly. Recent findings, however, bring a ray of hope. Extensive scientific field research conducted more recently refutes the earlier claim. Thus, installing bore-wells to make clean drinking water available all year round would actually ease the suffering of the population groups made to so desperately seek the elusive blue gold. 

With time saved from the daily trudging back and forth, the rural women could play active roles in water management that include longer-term conservation solutions like water harvesting and maintenance of reservoirs. Perhaps girls could even dream of a future of actually going to school, and enjoying their childhood. The more privileged sections of society need to think just a little beyond themselves, to make reality of these impossible dreams.