In spite of being in a water-rich zone due to numerous rivers flowing through them, eight towns in the Himalayan region of India, Nepal and Pakistan are now discovering that their precious resources have dwindled by 70 per cent

After decades of mindless use and wastage of water, we are being punished for taking this precious natural resource and asset for granted as nature has responded finally and definitively.

In spite of being in a water-rich zone due to numerous glacier-fed rivers flowing through them, eight towns in the Himalayan region of India, Nepal and Pakistan are now discovering that their water resources have dwindled by 70 per cent.

This alarming data was published in the latest edition of the journal Water Policy. The researchers studied 13 towns in these countries and zeroed down on eight that are facing an acute water stress.

How deep this crisis is became evident from the rising dependence on freshwater springs in these areas, which ranged from 50 per cent to 100 per cent. What is exacerbating the crisis is the fact that encroachments in the form of small eateries, hotels and guest houses have overrun natural water bodies, resulting in catchment areas disappearing from the topography.

The small villages in the upper Himalayas have been steadily witnessing an exodus of the population and bigger towns such as Devprayag in Uttarakhand have become overcrowded.

This has resulted in the natural resources in these towns being exploited to the hilt and now they have been exhausted beyond their carrying capacity. The Water Policy report specifically names Devprayag as one of the severely impacted towns.

Unplanned urbanisation and runaway tourism are largely to be blamed for the water scarcity and the report further states that left unchecked this condition can further exacerbate and double the gap between demand and supply of water by 2050.

The increased incidence of water shortages should have not gone unnoticed by the respective State administrations in India. But it happened and the long queues at water taps and near water tankers, which used to be the preserve of cities have started becoming a normal thing in the mountains as well now.

Perhaps the first hint of a water scarcity was the vegetation of the hills in the higher reaches becoming dry. Then came the abandonment of step farming on mountain slopes due to water sources such as waterfalls, rivulets and glacier-fed water channels drying up. Water resources in the hills have always been on the receiving end. The construction of numerous hydel projects during the 90s wreaked havoc on the delicate ecology of the Himalayas as river after river and water bodies started to disappear due to water being diverted for electricity generation.

This led to the land mafia usurping these dried up riverbeds for real estate development and the sand and rock mafia plundering them for  building material.

The road back to water self-sufficiency for the Himalayan towns and villages is nothing short of daunting. First and foremost, the respective State Government must cut back on the illegal construction and concentrate on water conservation. The water run-offs during monsoon  must be conserved and guided to the erstwhile water bodies.

This will not only breathe new life into the ancient water bodies but restore much-needed water independence. Similarly, efforts must be made to ensure that rivers, channels and rivulets that used to feed villages, hamlets and farmlands are restored to their former glory by channelising and allocating required amount of water quantities to them.

We need to give back to nature what we have taken away from it, and that is the ecological balance in these sensitive Himalayan zones.

(The writer is an environmental journalist)