Not politics, not interest rates: India’s surging economy at risk from water

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Residents fill their containers from a tap that dispenses water twice a day at a slum in New Delhi on June 27, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 05 July 2024
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Not politics, not interest rates: India’s surging economy at risk from water

  • The world’s most populous nation has suffered from water shortages for decades, but crises are coming around with increasing frequency
  • Contaminated water kills about 200,000 Indians each year, according to the government

NEW DELHI: In the Vivekananda Camp slum, adjacent to the US embassy in New Delhi, communal taps supply brackish water for about two hours a day. Water delivered by tankers provides one additional bucket to each of its 1,000 residents for drinking and cooking.
In parts of the arid state of Rajasthan, southwest of the Indian capital, tap water is available once every four days for an hour. In rural areas near Mumbai, women and children travel more than a mile to get water.
Bengaluru, India’s tech hub of 14 million people, reeled under a water shortage this year and had to rely on tanker deliveries.
“We don’t wash the floor or do the laundry for days sometimes,” said Sampa Rai, a 38-year-old in Delhi’s Vivekananda Camp, who scrambles before dawn every day to meet the first tanker delivering water. “Not even the dishes. We have to manage with what we have.”
The world’s most populous nation has suffered from water shortages for decades, but crises are coming around with increasing frequency. This year, for example, the summer has been one of the hottest on record and the crunch has worsened with rivers and lakes drying up and the water table falling.
The shortages are affecting rural and urban Indians alike, disrupting agriculture and industry, stoking food inflation and risking social unrest. Contaminated water kills about 200,000 Indians each year, according to the government. People and the economy are suffering.
That is adding urgency to public and private-sector efforts to conserve the resource, find ways to recycle waste water and reduce the country’s over-reliance on the annual monsoon, especially in the agricultural sector.
Ratings agency Moody’s warned last week that India’s growing water stress could affect its growth, which at a projected 7.2 percent this April-March fiscal year is the highest among major economies.
“Decreases in water supply can disrupt agricultural production and industrial operations, resulting in inflation in food prices and declines in income for affected businesses and workers, especially farmers, while sparking social unrest,” Moody’s said.
The government plans to more than triple waste water recycling by the end of the decade to 70 percent, according to a federal government policy document dated Oct. 21, 2023 that listed priorities for the next five years.
Krishna S. Vatsa, a senior official at the state-run National Disaster Management Authority, confirmed the targets in an interview last week.
Authorities also plan to cut the extraction of fresh water — ground water and surface water from rivers and lakes — to less than 50 percent by the end of the decade from 66 percent, the highest rate in the world, said the document, which has not been made public and was reviewed by Reuters.
It will also launch a national village-level program this year to recommend crops to farmers based on local water availability, Vatsa said.
Details of plans to address the water crisis have not been previously reported.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already ordered authorities to build or refurbish at least 75 lakes in each of the 785 districts of the country. The government says work has been started or completed on more than 83,000 lakes. Experts say such lakes can help recharge the water table.
Modi launched a near $50-billion program in 2019 to provide all rural households with tap water. The government says it has now covered 77 percent of more than 193 million such families, up from 17 percent five years ago, but residents and experts say not all pipes have water.
“It makes the issue of conservation far more urgent,” Vatsa said. “You cannot sustain such a national pipeline without the availability of water. The pipes will run dry.”
He agreed some taps could already be dry.

Water stressed
India relies substantially on the annual monsoon for its 1.42 billion people and its largely rural-based economy, where water-intensive crops like rice, wheat and sugarcane take up more than 80 percent of the overall supply.
The monsoon itself is prone to severe and extreme weather conditions. Catchment areas are getting scarce because of rapid urbanization, so even in a good monsoon, much of the rainwater drains off into the sea.
India’s annual per capita water availability, at about 1,486 cubic meters, is set to fall to 1,367 cubic meters by 2031 as its population grows, government projections show. The country has been “water stressed,” defined as per capita availability of less than 1,700 cubic meters, since 2011.
“We have a crisis now every year,” said Depinder Singh Kapur at Indian research body Center for Science and Environment.
“Earlier it used to be drought years versus normal years, now a water crisis is happening every year and with more intensity.”
There are pockets where private enterprise is addressing the crisis.
In Nagpur, a city of 3 million people, the Vishvaraj Group said it helped build a $100 million plant in 2020 that treats 200 million liters of sewage per day, extracting 190 million liters of treated water that it sells to two thermal power plants.
Founder Arun Lakhani said the freed up fresh water will be enough to take care of the expected population growth of the city for the next 35 years.
Some industries are investing in waste water recycling and rain harvesting to cut their dependence on fresh water.
Tata Steel plans to cut its fresh water consumption to less than 1.5 cubic meters per ton of crude steel produced at its Indian operations by 2030, from about 2.5 cubic meters now. JSW Steel also has similar plans.
“At least to plug the gaps in urban areas, treated waste water is going to be one important resource that we need to start acknowledging,” said Nitin Bassi at Indian think-tank The Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
Experts say nearly 90 percent of water supplied to homes can be recycled, but infrastructure for water distribution and sewage treatment has failed to match the growth of major cities and untreated waste ultimately flows into rivers.
Modi’s administration is adding sewage treatment capacity to lift the current rate of 44 percent in urban areas so more water can be recycled and used in industries, agriculture and other areas.
Between 2021 and 2026, it plans to invest about $36 billion to ensure equitable water distribution, reuse of waste-water and mapping of water bodies, the government has said.

Thirsty farmers
The cultivation of crops like rice in semi-arid states has led to rampant extraction of groundwater through borewells and steep falls in water tables, according to government and industry officials.
“The elephant in the room is agriculture,” said Lakhani of Vishvaraj. “We still use flood irrigation, we are not on drip or sprinkler irrigation. If we save just 10 percent water used in agriculture, it will take care of water problems of all the Indian cities.”
The government plans to implement a nationwide rural program on water use this year, said Vatsa, the disaster management official.
“For every village we need to have water budgeting,” he said. “How much water is available? How much should be used for irrigation? How much should be used for your domestic purpose? That would determine what kind of crops you are going to plant.”
Asked about possible resistance from farmers, who are a powerful voting bloc, he said: “There’s no other choice. The water table is just going down and at some point it becomes completely unviable. The borewells fail.”


Britain plans at least six new weapons factories in defense review

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Britain plans at least six new weapons factories in defense review

  • The 1.5 billion-pound ($2.0 billion) investment will be included in the Strategic Defense Review, a 10-year plan for military equipment and services

MANCHESTER, England: Britain will build at least six new factories producing weapons and explosives as part of a major review of its defense capabilities, the government said on Saturday.
The 1.5 billion-pound ($2.0 billion) investment will be included in the Strategic Defense Review, a 10-year plan for military equipment and services. The SDR is expected to be published on Monday.
The Ministry of Defense added that it planned to procure up to 7,000 long-range weapons built in Britain. Together, the measures announced on Saturday will create around 1,800 jobs, the MoD said.
“The hard-fought lessons from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them,” Defense Secretary John Healey said in a statement.
“We are strengthening the UK’s industrial base to better deter our adversaries and make the UK secure at home and strong abroad.”
The extra investment will mean Britain will spend around 6 billion pounds on munitions in the current parliament, the MoD said.
Earlier on Saturday, the MoD said it would spend an extra 1.5 billion pounds to tackle the poor state of housing for the country’s armed forces.


Paris Holocaust memorial, synagogues hit with paint

Updated 31 May 2025
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Paris Holocaust memorial, synagogues hit with paint

  • “I am deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community,” Retailleau said
  • No arrests have been made

PARIS: France’s Holocaust memorial, two synagogues and a restaurant in central Paris were vandalized with green paint overnight, according to police sources on Saturday, prompting condemnation from government and city officials.

“I am deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on X.

No arrests have been made.

Retailleau last week called for “visible and dissuasive” security measures at Jewish-linked sites amid concerns over possible anti-Semitic acts.

In a separate message seen by AFP, the interior minister on Friday had again ordered heightened surveillance ahead of the upcoming Jewish Shavuot holiday.

The French Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023.

“Anti-Semitic acts account for more than 60 percent of anti-religious acts, and the Jewish community is particularly vulnerable,” Retailleau said in the message seen by AFP.

Paris authorities would be lodging a complaint over the paint incident, said the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo.

“I condemn these acts of intimidation in the strongest possible terms. Anti-Semitism has no place in our city or in our Republic,” she said.

In May 2024, red hand graffiti was painted beneath the wall at the memorial in central Paris honoring individuals who saved Jews from persecution during the 1940-44 Nazi occupation of France.


US judge prevents Trump from invalidating 5,000 Venezuelans’ legal documents

Updated 31 May 2025
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US judge prevents Trump from invalidating 5,000 Venezuelans’ legal documents

  • The US Supreme Court on May 19 lifted an earlier order Chen issued
  • TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster

NEW YORK: A federal judge prevented the Trump administration from invalidating work permits and other documents granting lawful status to about 5,000 Venezuelans, a subset of the nearly 350,000 whose temporary legal protections the US Supreme Court last week allowed to be terminated.

US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco in a Friday night ruling concluded that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likely exceeded her authority when she in February invalidated those documents while more broadly ending the temporary protected status granted to the Venezuelans.

The US Supreme Court on May 19 lifted an earlier order Chen issued that prevented the administration as part of President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda from terminating deportation protection conferred to Venezuelans under the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, program.

But the high court stated specifically it was not preventing any Venezuelans from still challenging Noem’s related decision to invalidate documents they were issued pursuant to that program that allowed them to work and live in the United States.

Such documents were issued after the US Department of Homeland Security in the final days of Democratic President Joe Biden’s tenure extended the TPS program for the Venezuelans by 18 months to October 2026, an action Noem then moved to reverse.

TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event.

Lawyers for several Venezuelans and the advocacy group National TPS Alliance asked Chen to recognize the continuing validity of those documents, saying without them thousands of migrants could lose their jobs or be deported.

Chen in siding with them said nothing in the statute that authorized the Temporary Protected Status program allowed Noem to invalidate the documents.

Chen, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, noted the administration estimated only about 5,000 of the 350,000 Venezuelans held such documents. “This smaller number cuts against any contention that the continued presence of these TPS holders who were granted TPS-related documents by the Secretary would be a toll on the national or local economies or a threat to national security,” Chen wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Chen ruled hours after the US Supreme Court in a different case allowed Trump’s administration to end the temporary immigration “parole” granted to 532,000 Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants under a different Biden-era program.


India’s military chief admits jets downed in recent clashes with Pakistan

Updated 31 May 2025
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India’s military chief admits jets downed in recent clashes with Pakistan

  • Islamabad previously claimed to have shot down 6 Indian jets in early May
  • Indian Air Force may have underestimated its Pakistani counterpart, says expert

NEW DELHI: India’s military chief Gen. Anil Chauhan has confirmed for the first time that the Indian Air Force lost jets in clashes with Pakistan in May.

Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country shot down six Indian jets, an assertion that Delhi had refrained from commenting on.

Chauhan, chief of defense staff of the Indian Armed Forces, is the first Indian official to make the most direct admission over the fate of the country’s fighter jets during the conflict that erupted on May 7.

“What is important is that, not the jet being downed, but why they were being downed,” Chauhan told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Saturday, while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it and then implement it again after two days and fly all our jets again, targeting at long range.”

Pakistan’s claims of shooting down six Indian combat aircraft were “absolutely incorrect,” Chauhan said, without specifying how many jets India lost.

India and Pakistan recently saw their worst clashes in half a century, during which both sides traded air, drone and missile strikes, as well as artillery and small arms fire along their shared border.

It was triggered by a gruesome attack on tourists near the resort town of Pahalgam in Indian Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 people — 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen — were killed.

Bharat Karnad, an emeritus professor for National Security Studies at the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, said that the Indian Air Force may have underestimated its Pakistani counterpart.

“Initially, Indians were surprised. Maybe they underestimated the capacity of the Pakistani Air Force,” Karnad told Arab News on Saturday.

“I think what was surprising was that India did not use the airborne early warning (and) control system, the NETRA, which Pakistan has used very well,” he said. “I’m not sure how much the Indian Air Force expected this kind of tactical innovation. So, this is something that the Indian Air Force realized very quickly.”

According to Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, a retired officer of the Indian Air Force, Pakistan benefited from its Chinese-made weapons during the early May conflict.

“This brings us to the lessons which underscore that India was not fighting Pakistan on one front but two countries: Pakistan and China,” Kak told Arab News.

“Every single superior technology, capability, operationally and tactically, or in strategic terms, are made available to Pakistan. That must concern us: What kind of force structure we must have and what kind of capabilities we must build against the combo.”


Death toll rises to 17 in Indonesia quarry collapse as search continues

Updated 31 May 2025
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Death toll rises to 17 in Indonesia quarry collapse as search continues

  • The victims were trapped in the rubble when the Gunung Kuda quarry in Cirebon district collapsed
  • By Saturday afternoon, rescuers had retrieved 16 bodies

CIREBON, Indonesia: The death toll from the collapse of a stone quarry in Indonesia’s West Java province has risen to at least 17, with eight people still missing, officials said Saturday.

The victims were trapped in the rubble when the Gunung Kuda quarry in Cirebon district collapsed on Friday. A dozen survivors were found by rescuers.

By Saturday afternoon, rescuers had retrieved 16 bodies, while one of the survivors died in the hospital, said local police chief Sumarni. She said rescuers are searching for eight people still believed to be trapped

“The search operation has been hampered by bad weather, unstable soil and rugged terrain,” said Sumarni who goes by a single name like many Indonesians.

She said the cause of the collapse is still under investigation, and police have been questioning six people, including the owner of the quarry.

Local television reports showed emergency personnel, along with police, soldiers and volunteers, digging desperately in the quarry in a steep limestone cliff, supported by five excavators, early Saturday.

West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi said in a video statement on Instagram that he visited the quarry before he was elected in February and considered it dangerous.

“It did not meet the safety standard elements for its workers,” Mulyadi said, adding that at that time, “I didn’t have any capacity to stop it.”

On Friday, Mulyadi said that he had ordered the quarry shut, as well as four other similar sites in West Java.

Illegal or informal resource extraction operations are common in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to those who labor in conditions with a high risk of injury or death.

Landslides, flooding and tunnel collapses are just some of the hazards associated with them. Much of the processing of sand, rocks or gold ore also involves the use of highly toxic mercury and cyanide by workers using little or no protection.

Last year, a landslide triggered by torrential rains struck an unauthorized gold mining operation on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, killing at least 15 people.