A hundred cities worldwide, including 30 in India, face the risk of ‘severe water scarcity’ by 2050, according to a recent report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The cities would face a ‘grave water risk’ by 2050 due to a dramatic increase in their population percentage to 51 per cent by 2050, from 17 per cent in 2020, according to a press statement by WWF-India. With water crises already plaguing many of the world’s cities, the WWF’s new water risk scenarios estimate that hundreds of millions of people in cities across the globe could be at danger.
Globally, populations in areas of high-water risk could rise from 17 per cent in 2020 to 51 per cent by 2050. The list includes cities such as Beijing, with China accounting for almost half the cities, besides Jakarta, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Mecca and Rio de Janeiro. The WWF’s Risk Filter analysis has projected a bleak scenario for India overall, with almost a third of 100 cities qualify as high-risk zones by 2050. In addition to the two, other 28 cities named by WWF susceptible to water risk “in the next few decades” are Amritsar, Pune, Srinagar, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kozhikode, Visakhapatnam, Thane, Vadodara, Rajkot, Kota, Nashik, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Hubli-Dharwad, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Dhanbad, Bhopal, Gwalior, Surat, Delhi, Aligarh, Lucknow and Kannur.
Over the past several years, cities like Chennai have faced a dire crisis of water supply. “The future of India’s environment lies in its cities. As India rapidly urbanizes, cities will be at the forefront both for India’s growth and for sustainability. For cities to break away from the current vicious loop of flooding and water scarcity, nature-based solutions like restoration of urban watersheds and wetlands could offer solutions,” said Dr Sejal Worah, programme director, WWF India. This is our chance to re-evolve and re-imagine what the future of the cities could be,” Dr Worah added.
The analysis also cited issues like deforestation, soil erosion, overgrazing, air pollution and water pollution that contributed to the country’s environmental problems. The analysis by WWF also stressed on the importance of India’s Smart Cities initiative and noted that the initiative provided a framework for water management. “Urban watersheds and wetlands are critical for maintaining the water balance of a city, flood cushioning, micro-climate regulation and protecting its biodiversity,” the report said.
WWF also launched an online tool called the WWF Water Risk Filter to help cities imagine future water risks and plan a better and sustainable future facilitating climate and water resilience. A lot of planning becomes impossible owing to the lack of data. The data available currently was at least a decade old and the reality of water availability and usage now was much different than that presented in the data, WWF said. While a lot of initiatives taken by government were based on old data, the simulation that WWF had designed could help cities and its stakeholders plan better, the non-profit added.
