INTRODUCTION:

Climate change affects the balance between water demand and water availability, it is necessary to consider the entire group of socially valued water uses and how the allocation of water across those uses is likely to change. Water is valuable not only for domestic uses, but also for its role in supporting aquatic ecosystems and environmental amenities, including recreational opportunities, and as a factor of production in irrigated agriculture, hydropower production, and other industrial uses (Young, 2005). The social costs or benefits of any change in water availability would depend on how the change affects each of these potentially competing human water demands. The institutions that govern water allocation will play a large role in determining the overall social impacts of a change in water availability, as well as the distribution of gains and losses across different sectors of society. (Wichelns et al.,2002; Easter and Renwick, 2004; Orr and Colby, 2004; Saleth and Dinar, 2004; Svendsen, 2005).

Water is life because plants and animals cannot live without water. Water is needed to ensure food security, feed livestock, and take up industrial production to conserve the biodiversity and environment. Although, India is not a water poor country, but due to growing human population, severe neglect and over-exploitation of this resource, water is becoming a scarce commodity. While this is a growing concern to all over the world, India is most vulnerable because of the growing demand and in-disciplined lifestyle. This calls for immediate attention by the stakeholders to make sustainable use of the available water resources to ensure better quality of lives. As we study the Impact of climate change on water scarcity in India. Maharashtra is one of the states the climate is typical monsoon climate, with hot, rainy and cold weather seasons. March, April and May are the hottest months. During April and May thunderstorms are common all over the state. Temperature varies between 35°C-45°C during this season. Rainfall starts normally in the first week of June. July is the wettest month in Maharashtra, Cool dry spell, with clear skies gentle breeze and pleasant weather prevails from November to February.

Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, receive heavy rains of an average of 200 centimetres annually. But the districts of Nasik, Pune, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Satara, Sangli, Solapur and parts of Kolhapur get rainfall less than 50 centimetres. Central Maharashtra receives less rainfall.

However, under the influence of the Bay of Bengal, eastern Vidarbha receives good rainfall in July, August and September. But in spite of all this in Maharastra, the Marathwada region is always drought prone area and always has water scarcity.

Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet water needs within a region. It affects around 2.8 billion people around the world for at least a month every year. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. Water Scarcity International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' 2005-2015. Un.org. Retrieved 20 October 2013. Water scarcity involves water stress, water shortage or deficits, and water crisis. The relatively new concept of water stress is difficulty in obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time; it may result in further reduction and deterioration of available water resources. “Water Stress” Retrieved 20 October 2013. Water shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather-patterns (including drought or floods), increased pollution, and increased human demand and overuse of water. The term water crisis labels a situation where the available potable, unpolluted water within a region is less than that region's demand net (11 November 2002). Two converging phenomena drive water scarcity: growing freshwater use and depletion of usable freshwater resources. Chance Clifford (October 2011),

Exploitation of Ground Water:

The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has notified 82 areas (Districts, Blocks, Mandals, Talukas, and Municipalities) for regulation of ground water development. In these areas, installation of new ground water abstraction structures is not permitted without prior specific approval of the Authority / Authorized officer. Moreover, proposals for setting up/expansion of ground water based industries including bottled water manufacturing units are forwarded by State Pollution Control Boards and Bureau of Indian Standards to CGWA for seeking No Objection Certificate (NOC) for ground water withdrawal. In non-notified areas, NOC is issued with mandatory pre-conditions of adoption of rain water harvesting system, monitoring of ground water abstraction, level and quality etc. by the industry. For enforcement of the regulatory directions issued under Section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, concerned Deputy Commissioners/ District Collectors have been authorized to take necessary action in case of violations of directives of CGWA in the notified areas.

Water scarcity affects every continent and around 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of every year. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. According to Amarasingh, U. A., Shah, T., Turral, H. and Anand, B.K., (2007) water scarcity involves water stress, water shortage or deficits, and water crisis. The relatively new concept of water stress is difficulty in obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time; it may result in further depletion and deterioration of available water resources Anonymous, (2006). Water shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather-patterns including droughts or floods, increased pollution and increased human demand and overuse of water Govt. of India (2009).

Realities Due to Water Scarcity in Real Life:

According to Times of India (9^th April 2016), parents of many brides-to-be have broken their daughters’ engagements because they do not want their daughters to walk more than 5 km to fetch drinking water. This is becoming a more common occurrence in the region as parents do not want to send their daughters to a village that is at the mercy of erratic and expensive water tankers, since common wells, the only source of drinking water in many villages are drying up. The rainfall deficit in Marathwada was 47 percent as compared to 7 percent in Vidarbha. Similarly, Latur, Beed and Parbhani have received between 61 to 65 percent less rainfall than normal.

According to Times of India city TNN (April 19, 2016), there are 1,000 villages, 8 districts facing water crisis due to drying up of local water sources in Gujarat due to insufficient rains for the last two years, eight districts- Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Dahod, Panchmahal and Amreli were facing a drinking water shortage. As a result the lack of income, and increasingly a reduction of their backup resources that has obsessed people deeper into debt. These severe shortages of water are also leaving many farmers unable to grow crops and provide food for their livestock. While some have reluctantly moved out for the sake of their boys’ and their own future, others have prepared themselves against the authorities to demand protection for their livelihood. India has seen an increase in farmers committing suicide.

Global Water Availability:

70% of the earth surface is covered with water, which amounts to 1400 million cubic kilometres (m km3). However, 97.5% of this water being sea water which is salty. The availability of fresh water is only 35 m km3 out of which 68.7% is frozen in ice caps, 30% is stored underground and only 0.3% water is available on the surface of the earth. Out of the surface water, 87% is stored in lakes, 11% in swamp and 2% in rivers. As all the sweet water is not extractable only 1% of the total water can be used by human being (Anon, 2006).

Water Scarcity and Farmers Suicides in Vidarbha:

As per (The Hindu, 14 Jan. 2016) suicides by farmers touched a grim high in 2015. It had recorded 2,590 suicides until October 2015, the higher ever since 2001 went on to register 610 more deaths in just the last two months. The death toll on December 31, 2015 stood at 3,228. Maharashtra has recorded 20,504 farmer suicides since 2001. Data obtained from the Government shows Vidarbha, was the worst hit last year, with around 1,541 farmers from Amaravati and Nagpur division committing suicides. As many as 1,130 farmers ended their lives in the Aurangabad division of Marathwada. Nashik in North Maharashtra witnessed 459 cases of farmer suicides. In Pune division, which covers the state’s flourishing Western region, too recorded 96 suicides of which 27 were registered in the last two months of the year. In Youth Ki Awaz (22 April 2016), Around 3,00,000 farmers have committed suicide in India over the past 20 years. Water scarcity and crop failure are the major reasons for it. The Central Government has informed the Supreme Court of India that one-third of the population in India is affected by drought. In more shocking revelations, it was found that 33 crore Indians are living in places with massive drought (more than 25% of India’s population) and big water reservoirs in the country have only 1/4^th full of water. India is clearly fighting severe water crises.

For the government, the worse news is that all eight districts of Marathwada have received record low rainfall in July, the crucial month for Kharif sowing. The backward district of Beed received only 10.8 mm average rainfall through the month of July, while Jalna received 14.2 mm, Osmanabad 20.5 mm and Parbhani 23.4 mm. The other four districts of Marathwada fared only marginally better, with Nanded receiving average 50.3 mm in July, Latur 31.5 mm, Hingoli 44 mm and Aurangabad 26.4 mm.

Water Resources in India:

Government of India, (2009) India is blessed with good rainfall well distributed over 5-6 months in the year. The average annual rainfall in the country is 1170 mm with a wide range between 100 mm in desert areas of Rajasthan to 10000 mm in Cherapunji. The total available sweet water in the country is 4000 billion m3 per annum. Out of this, over 1047 billion m3 water is lost due to evaporation, transpiration and runoff, reducing the available water to 1953 billion m3 and the usable water to 1123 billion m3. It is disturbing to note that only 18% of the rainwater is used effectively while 48% enters the river and most of which reaches the ocean. Out of the total usable water, 728 billion m3 is contributed from surface water and 395 billion m3 is contributed by replenish able ground water. Against the above supply, the water consumed during the year 2006 in India was 829 billion m3 which is likely to increase to 1093 billion m3 in 2025 and 1047 billion m3 in 2050, as estimated by the Government of India (2009). As the potential for increasing the volume of utilisation of water is hardly 5-10%, India is bound to face severe scarcity of water in the near future.

While water for consumption is most crucial, it is equally important to provide water for irrigation to increase the food production and livestock husbandry, to ensure food security for the increasing population. Growing population, as everyone is aware, is a serious concern as it will create further burden on the per capita water availability in the future. Apart from irrigation, many rivers in India are also used for generating hydro power. Out of the estimated hydro power potential of 1,50,000 mw, only 21% has been developed so far and additional 10% power generation projects are under implementation. Presently, the country is facing many difficulties in further tapping the potential, due to difficult sites, forest conservation concerns; inter State issues, poor implementation and lack of commitment. It is also possible to develop multipurpose projects for power generation and irrigation which can improve the project viability, while increasing water supply.

Pollution of water resources is another major concern which is affecting the water supply as well as human health conditions. Although, 5% of the total water is used for domestic use, 27% of the villages and 4 to 6% urban population in India do not have access to drinking water. Apart from inadequate supply of water, there is a serious concern about the quality of water, which is severely affecting the health. It is reported that over 70% of the water consumed by rural population in India does not meet the WHO standards. It has been reported that 80% of rural illnesses, 21% of transmissible diseases and 20% of deaths among children in the age group of 5 years are directly linked to consumption of unsafe water.

Table: 01-Current water Usage

Usage (%)	World	Europe	Africa	India
Agriculture	69	33	88	83
Industry	23	54	05	12
Domestic	08	13	07	05

Dr. Ambedkar’s Vision for Water Management:

Dr. Ambedkar was much worried about the increasing population of India which could results in problems of poverty, unemployment and hunger deaths. Hence he wanted to upgrade agriculture by giving it a status of industry. However, a proposal for nationalisation of agriculture land and collective farming on the pattern of Russia was prepared so that it could be mechanised. For this purpose he wanted to implement river irrigation schemes for which plans for canals by putting up dams on rivers and produce hydroelectric power was drawn. The rivers could be the means of prosperity by stopping destruction through floods. With this purpose in view he was the first to make a plan for “Damodar River Valley” similar to “Tennis Valley Authority” of America. Similarly he made plans for utilising the water of other rivers of India. Dr. Ambedkar wanted to promote water transport also because it is very cheap. He also favoured the use of small atomic explosions in the river bed in order to deepen them and avoid floods due to silting. With this objective he had set up “Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission” (CWINC). However, we can estimate the modern outlook and progressive thinking of Dr. Ambedkar regarding agriculture, irrigation, power and use of the river water.

He has a firm opinion that unemployment, poverty and shortage of consumer goods cannot be removed without industrialisation in India. Dr. Ambedkar also knew that industrialisation cannot be done without power. Hence he was in the opinion that we should produce cheap and adequate power. He wanted to generate power by building dams on rivers. The Damodar Valley Project was made to established Central Water and Power Commission. The main task of this Commission, Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission was to give advice to the states for agriculture irrigation and power generation. Later on with their cooperation and guidance many big multipurpose river schemes were prepared which helped in agriculture irrigation and flood control along with power production. He also set up Electricity Boards for power generation and distribution. In fact Dr. Ambedkar laid the foundation of industrialisation of India by making plans for power generation, flood control, agriculture irrigation and multipurpose river schemes.

National Water Policy, 2012:

1. Agriculture sector:

· Improvement in water usage efficiency;

· Adoption of rainwater harvesting and watershed management techniques;

· Reduction of subsidies on power supply particularly for pumping water;

· Prevention of ground water exploitation by introducing differential pricing, rewards and punishments;

· Implementation of National River Link project which aims to connect 30 rivers and canals to generates 175 trillion litres of water.

2. Human right to water: The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights established a foundation of five core attributes for water security. They declare that the human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use (United Nations Development Programme, 2006). There are several principal manifestations of the water crisis.

· Inadequate access to safe drinking water for about 884 million people;

· which often leads to water pollution;

· Groundwater over drafting (excessive use) leading to diminished agricultural yields,"No global water crisis 2003.

· Overuse and pollution of water resources harming biodiversity.

· Regional conflicts over scarce water resources sometimes resulting in warfare.

Water Scarcity Preventive Measures:

Community based initiatives with support from government and UNICEF, villagers in located in the drought prone Block in district of Maharashtra, can develop a catchment plan check dams, canal bunds, percolation tanks linked to the main tank and ponds. The following measures could be initiated to the percolation tank for water store.

1. Raising awareness: Develop the awareness through various modes like the mobile game on water for social change focusing on the water scarcity in India and the effect it has on education. The game's primary goal is to raise awareness of the water crisis, by educating children as well as adult gamers. Through advertisement, through examples, role plays, street play etc.

2. Compulsory rain water Harvesting: Rain water is accumulated and used for ground water recharge. This increases the ground water availability.

3. Farm Pond: Farm ponds are constructed near the farming field. The rain water which runs off the ground collected by these ponds. These ponds help agriculture in dry lands.

4. Actor Aamir Khan has Launched ‘Paani Foundation’, an organisation to launched the ‘Satyamev Jayate Water Cup’, a watershed management.

5. Droughts have major impact on crops as more than half of India’s crop led a huge fall in crop production. The investments of drought-resistant crops can help reduce some of the negative impacts.

6. More than 60% of India’s agriculture is rain-fed, making the country highly dependent on groundwater. Even without climate change, 15% of India’s groundwater resources are overexploited. The efficient use of ground water resources will need to be incentivized.

7. Major investments in water storage capacity would be needed to benefit from increased river flows in spring and compensate for lower flows later.

8. Climate-related impacts on water resources can undermine the two dominant forms of power generation in India-hydropower and thermal power generation-both of which depend on adequate water supplies to function affectivity. To function at full efficiency, thermal power plants need a constant supply of fresh cool water to maintain their cooling systems. The increasing variability and long-term decreases in river flows can pose a major challenge to hydropower plants and increase the risk of physical damage from landslides, flash floods, glacial lake outbursts, and other climate-related natural disasters. Decreases in the availability of water and increases in temperature will pose major risk factors to thermal power generation. Projects will need to be planed taking into account climatic risks.

9. Urbanization, population growth, economic development, and increasing demand for water from agriculture and industry are likely to aggravate the situation further. Improvements in irrigation systems, water harvesting techniques, and more-efficient agricultural water management can offset some of these risks.

10. Modern Soak Pits: In the urban area the water which is used for bathing, washing cloths and utensils should not be washed away through sewage canals but it should be absorbed in the earth through the modern soak pits special design in each household so that ground water table can be increased. This kind of planning will be certainly facilitated to get sufficient water in all the wells and bore-wells in the city.

Government New Water Policy Plan to Tackle Scarcity in Villages:

Maharashtra state Government plans to bring in a comprehensive water management policy to tackle the sever water scarcity that has gripped 28,000 out of 40,000 villages in Maharashtra. The four core areas proposed include a complete ban on release of untreated sewage water in rivers and dams. The Water Resources Ministry along with Urban Development Ministry has agreed to make it mandatory for all 27 Municipal Corporations and 350 Municipal Councils to install sewage treatment plans. Now 80-95 per cent of the water released into rivers is untreated. The state has five major rivers basins-Godavari, Krishna, Tapi, Narmada and Western Flowing-which form the premises for drinking water, agriculture and industries across Maharashtra.

According to www.Indianexpress.com (May 15, 2016), there are a total of 82 sub-rivers of which 42 falls in the category of water deficit. Two aspects are under consideration whether the curtail permissions of new industrial units along these 42 sub-rivers basin or make it mandatory for industrial units to availed recycled water from Municipal Corporations and Council to address their requirements and to make them financially viable, the possibility of allowing the sale of some percentage of the recycled water for the industrial sector is being explored. If Government success in sewage water treatment and use of recycled water for industries, it would ease the pressure on water availability in river basin and dams by almost 25 per cent. This can be supplied in abundance for drinking and agriculture purposes.

At present, 11 big dams in Marathwada region have only 3 per cent water left. The water management policy of the state Government intends to address large issue of both hydrological as well as agriculture drought. Of the 28,000 villages, almost 15,500 villages are reeling under agriculture drought which is confined to the districts of Vidarbaha region. Another aspect that would be determined through this policy relates to sectoral allocation of water. The Water Resources Ministry is flooded with requests for release of additional water from one river basin to another to meet the problems of drinking water. There are others seeking water for agriculture use and industries. To resolve the problems, the Government will make water audit compulsory. It would followed by spelling out sectoral distribution in accordance with requirement and availability (The Sunday Expressed, May 15, 2016).

CONCLUSION:

India is not a water scarcity country, but due to severe neglect and lack of monitoring of water resources development projects, several regions in the country experience water stress from time to time. Further neglect in this sector will lead to water scarcity during coming years. It is therefore necessary to prevent this crisis by making best use of the available technologies and resources to conserve the existing water resources, convert them into utilisable form and make efficient use of them for agriculture, industrial production and human consumption. Imposing regulatory measures to prevent the misuse of water and introducing rewards and punishment to encourage judicious use of water, will be helpful to conserve water. Finally, awareness and orientation of all the water users to change their lifestyle to conserve water, it can help the country to come over the water crisis in the future. The challenge is manageable if we work according to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s the modern outlook and progressive thinking regarding agriculture, irrigation, power and use of the river water, vision for water management like Central Water and Power Commission and plans for canals by putting up dams on rivers and produce hydroelectric power. In this way it helps us to minimise the scarcity of water Indian situation.

REFERENCES:

1. Aamir Khan Talks About India’s Water Crisis And What He’s Doing To Help Solve It Youth ki Awaz 22 April 2016

2. Amarasinghe, U. A., Shah, T., Turral, H. and Anand, B.K., (2007). India’s water future to 2025-2050: Business as usual scenario and deviations. Research Report 123, IWMI

3. Anonymous (2006) Water – A shared responsibility, United Nations World Water Development Report.

4. Chance, Clifford (October 2011), Tackling Water Scarcity Advocates for International Development

5. Freshwater: Lifeblood of the Planet, People and planet. net (11 November 2002). Retrieved on 27 August 2013.

6. Govt. of India (2009) Background note for consultation meeting with Policy makers on review of National Water Policy, Ministry of Water Resources.

7. Govt. of India (2009) Background note for consultation meeting with Policy makers on review of National Water Policy. Ministry of Water Resources
Loáiciga, H.A. 2003. "Climate Change and Ground Water," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 93, No. 1, March, pp. 30-41.

8. IDSA (2010) Water Security for India: External dynamics. IDSA Task Force Report.

9. Konikow, Leonard and Eloise Kendy. (2005). Groundwater Depletion: A Global Problem. Hydrogeology (13) 317-320.

10. Moni, M. (2004) Informatics blueprint for Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management at grassroots level: A Quintessential Requirement for Adaptation to Climate Change and Sustainable Agricultural Development in India. Paper presented the National Conference on “Climate Change and its Impact on Water Resources in India”, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, December 15-17

11. "No global water crisis – but May developing countries will face water scarcity". FAO.org. 12 March 2003.

12. United Nations Development Programme (2006). Human Development Report 2006: Beyond Scarcity–Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.

13. UN World Summit on Sustainable Development Released by NRDC at the World Summit for Sustainable Development, August 29, 2002.

14. "Water Stress" Retrieved 20 October 2013.

15. "Water Stress" Threats WWF. 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.

16. www.Indianexpress.com, The Sunday Express, May 15, 2016.

Received on 18.10.2016 Modified on 22.10.2016

Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences. 2016; 4(4):183-188.

Country	Billion Lit/Day
Country	Year	Agriculture	Industry	Domestic	Per Capita Lit/Day
India	2000	1658	115	093	088.9
India	2050	1745	441	227	167.0
China	2000	1024	392	105	082.7
China	2050	1151	822	219	155.4
USA	2000	542	605	166	582.7
USA	2050	315	665	187	484.6