Anew study says that well-tended gardens, swimming pools and clean cars of the rich are as responsible as climate change for the water shortages that cities face. The study was published recently in the journal Nature Sustainability. It used Cape Town in South Africa as a model but the researchers said similar issues confront other big cities, drawing attention to the fact that since 2000 more than 80 cities had encountered water shortages and drought. Among these were cities as far apart as Miami and Melbourne, and Bengaluru and Barcelona. The study found that Cape Town’s most affluent residents ~ making up 14 per cent of the population ~ used a little more than half of the city’s water, while the poorest group making up 62 per cent got a little more than a quarter of supplies. Extensive use of bore wells by the rich to augment municipal supplies had depleted the water table, a story that will find resonance in many Indian cities where the use of such wells is rampant despite bans.

The researchers found that overuse of a scarce resource by the affluent was a factor mostly ignored by those managing cities, with their focus being on finding ways to increase supply or raise water prices. They argued that more equitable distribution of resources was the optimum way to use water. The research ought to be an eye-opener for Indian planners. India, with a little less than a fifth of the world’s population, has only 4 per cent of the planet’s freshwater resources, making it one of the most water-stressed nations in the world. A report of the Niti Aayog has said that several Indian states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab have faced water scarcity for the past five years. The cities of Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai are stressed.

The capital, according to some estimates, wastes up to a fifth of its water, and coincidentally it is almost the same proportion of the city’s population that does not have access to piped drinking water, a stinging rebuke of the manner in which resources are managed. Chennai, which depends mostly on rainwater to fill its reservoirs, periodically faces horrific shortages. Bengaluru, which draws water from the Cauvery basin is also heavily dependent on groundwater, but is fast seeing its bore wells dry up. By 2050, as many as 30 Indian cities will face severe water crises with Jaipur, Thane, Indore and Vadodara topping the list. Indian planners would do well to study the research data from Cape Town.

India is projected to have 1.62 million dollar millionaires by 2026, according to a reliable report, and already has the third highest number of individuals worth more than $100 million. As more Indians grow rich, their swimming pools and coiffured gardens must not force the less privileged to perish from thirst.