BUSINESS MANDATE
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1 MAR 2022
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
33 MAR 2022
In her fascinating, deeply researched book, Ms Mridula Ramesh takes us through 4,000 years of history to track how India’s water has reached a critical point. Mr N K Ranganath, Grundfos Water Ambassador and Mr G V Ravishankar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India, interact with Ms Mridula Ramesh, on what it takes to secure our future.
Ranganath: People were thinking that getting water was
in the investor community, I heard about carbon
their birth right. Though there is enough water available, it
mitigation. To attract funding, you have to manage your
is not available in the right place, at the right time and in the
carbon emissions. Conserving water has been treated
right quality. Usage of water responsibly is the duty of
like a step-child and not been given any importance.
everyone.
Mridula Ramesh: The
Carbon, no doubt, is very important. If you put out heart
of
any
change,
CO2, it stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years
understanding or approach is philosophy. If we get the
and
philosophy right, everything will follow from there.
supercharges the water. That translates to the wet
Sustainability comes from the root word, 'maintain
getting wetter and the dry getting drier.
increases
the
warming.
The
temperature
from below.' Water is the foundation of sustainability but we all take it for granted. My journey is everybody's journey. I didn't care about water as long as it did not affect me. Nine years ago, we ran out of water at home.
I saw a lot of books on India's
That's when water became visible to me—visible when
rivers, drought, farming,
it became absent.
sewage treatment and rain
I learnt about climate change. I realised the seriousness of the water problem and wondered why
water harvesting. But I didn't find one book on India's water.
no one was talking about it. In the last few years, as I participated in the climate related dialogues, not only in India but in the world, in every discussion, more so 34
MAR 2022
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~ Mridula Ramesh
I saw a lot of books on India's rivers, drought,
We have been taught in Geography that Indian
farming, sewage treatment and rain water harvesting.
monsoon
But I didn't find one book on India's water. Poet Kalidas
temperature contrast between land and sea. But now,
in his work, 'Meghdoot,' beautifully describes India's
this no longer holds good. We have global effects like
water as a product of sun, sea, mountain and land
El-Nino, Indian Ocean Dipole, The Madden Julian
including forests. Because it is the combination of the
Oscillations, etc. Climate change disrupts the traditional
Himalayas, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the
rainfall pattern.
Arabian Sea, it has four characteristics.
is
a
land-sea
breeze
driven
by
the
In the 1870s famine that India had, according to
One, it varies geographically. In Jaisalmer, we get
official estimate, 5.5 million people died. People died
an average of 165 mm of rainfall. Across the country,
in Madras, Madurai and Arcot. In some of the famines,
we get 5 metres of rain, in a matter of months. So, it is
40% of the Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh died. We
meaningless to talk about average rainfall in India.
forgot how variable India's water could be. Climate
Second, we have one of the seasonally, variable water in the world. It is much skewed. We have to manage this skew.
change takes on each of these and makes them worse. It increases the rainfall in Jaisalmer. It brings down the summer rainfall and increases the winter rainfall in Chennai. Instead of the rain falling constantly over 40
Third is the temporality. If you take the average
hours, it now pours in 30 hours but with increased
number of rain days, Indian cities are outliers. Rain
quantity and intensity. Therefore, not including water
water harvesting is very important to store water and
in sustainability is a scary thing.
recharge the ground. BUSINESS MANDATE
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35 MAR 2022
I grew up in Chennai. We were a family of seven in a small
Earlier, the lakes were a source
2BHK household. We had the same water problem that many
of spiritual status and cash flow.
Chennaiites faced—water would not come when we opened
Each tank was like a cash flow
the taps. It came only at times. We had to take our pots, go
machine. If you clean the tank,
to the street, stand in a queue and collect water. I always
you get karmic points.
had a fear that someday as we grew up, there would be no water. I am now in Bengaluru. It gets lot more rainfall than Chennai. Despite that, I woke up in 2018 or 2019 to an article
~ Mridula Ramesh
that one day, Bengaluru could run out of water by 2020. Why does a city like Bengaluru that gets so much rainfall and has so many lakes still run of water?
hotspots, performance areas, etc., so that they thrive.
For many Indians, getting water is a luxury. The
In Madurai, when the Mariamman Temple Teppakulam
water problem gets worse due to the seasonality,
(tank) was renovated, within a year of renovation, we
temporality and climate change factors. Madras gets
found that 123 livelihoods came up around the tank.
about 45 rain days in a year. Bengaluru also gets
Tanks prevent rain water flooding. They become a place
approximately around that. We use water every day. So
to hang out. It lowers our monthly water spend, easily
we have to even it out.
by 100 rupees.
Those days, we had distributed tanks. T Nagar was a huge tank many years ago. Chennai Boat Club was a 2 miles by 3 miles lake. They used to hold the winter regatta for a mile long course. Now we have floods in Chennai. In Bengaluru also, systems of tanks have been encroached.
Have you come across any example where water went back to the community and got protected?
One of my mentors, Shri Rajendra Singh of Alwar has done that. His work is the most profound example. Water was always a community-managed resource in India but became centralized during British rule. The
At Sundaram Climate Institute, we did a study and
British reports decry the lakes in Chennai and describe
found that if we rejuvenate the tanks, the ground water
them as a cesspool and a source of malaria infestation.
level goes up by 100 to 200 feet. Earlier, the lakes were
For the British administration, centralizing water supply
a source of spiritual status and cash flow. Each tank
ensured
was like a cash flow machine. If you clean the tank, you
infrastructure gave them great returns on their invested
get karmic points. If you maintain the tank, you get
capital. With centralisation, many good things like
status and village festivals. Fishing, livestock, lotus
fishing from the lakes also disappeared. It is very
flowers were sources of huge revenue. Today, most
important that community must be involved in
lakes are pathetic with junk and solid waste. What
developing and safeguarding the water bodies.
status can they give you?
better
control
and
revenue.
Building
In Gujarat, by pumping water in, people pushed back salinity
We should develop sustainable tourism around
of the ground water by ten kilometers. There are private
water bodies like selfie-spots, cycling track, Wi-Fi
companies who are doing similar works as part of CSR
36
MAR 2022
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initiatives. We are the first borewell manufacturers in India,
bullock cart, he should pay 25%. If he used a mechanical
starting them in 1954. Now, many farmers, during rainy
wheel to draw more water, he should pay 30% tax.
season pump water back into the borewell which recharges the aquifer. There are three levels in an aquifer. The first level gets recharged easily. If you go down, there are issues and it may take several years for water to percolate down. We must have short, medium and long term plans to manage water. I am not against RO in houses. But we should use the discharged water from RO for watering plants or other
Compare it to today's scenario. In Bengaluru, if you use a borewell, you pay Rs 10 for 1000 litres. If you use piped water, you pay Rs 22 for 1000 litres. If you are richer, you get cheaper water. If you are poor and you depend on the tanker water, you pay around 30 paise per litre.
purposes. I read that Chennai once had 300 man-made tanks
The popular narrative, unfortunately, is that water
which were connected to one another. Today, we have hardly
is a birth right. This is a post-1960 narrative. In all of
40 of them and they also need to be restored. Is technology
Indian history, water had a price. It was a season based,
a panacea? What is your stand on technology versus mindset?
variable and progressive pricing. We need to crack this
Access
to
technology
and
money
are
not
bottlenecks in solving our water problem. There are many
technologies
which
are
available
today.
Technology can be dangerous too. Borewell, as a technology, has been hugely transformational in India.
narrative of water as a birth right, to solve our water problems. Why does not the market level this field?
Market needs a signal. Today, it is profitable to market a pair of jeans than a litre of water. Where are
The bottleneck is the philosophy. The genie in the
our startup investments? The forest-water link is one
room is the value of water. How do we value it and
of the most underappreciated and critical links in India.
price it? We live in an economic world and there is no
For the British, forests were important because of the
going away from that. In an economic world, what is
timber. Today, 60% of the forest value comes from the
priced is prized and what is unpriced is invisible. In
trees. They literally miss the value of the forests for the
Arthasastra, Chanakya talks about progressive water
trees.
tax, where the rich pay more. If a farmer took water manually, he should pay 20% of the tax. If he used a BUSINESS MANDATE
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True. There is no business case for starting a business for
Decentralised water distribution,
water. If PPP comes in, all the risks are one-sided. When
where the benefits and costs will
Tsunami came, many areas, especially Nagapattinam, became
somewhat match, is the best
extremely saline. We put five or six of our own portable RO
workable solution to manage
systems in that area, along with others, to provide clean
India’s water problems.
drinking water. We took care of the capex and trained all the women. We requested for charging only for the opex on a per litre basis.
~ Mridula Ramesh
Thanks to self-help groups, this went on well for 5 or 6 years, after which the government asked us to take back the systems. When we asked for the reasons, the government
workable solution to manage India’s water problems.
said that they had dug borewells and were providing free
Farmer suicides have plummeted in India, except in
water to the people. The water quality was horrible though,
two states—Maharashtra and Karnataka. These are the
with 2000 ppm of salt. Saline water is 20,000 ppm. People
states where onions are grown. Most onion farmers are
prefer to buy free water rather than pay10 paise per litre of
small, they depend on rains and are completely exposed
RO water which was not only clean but also saved them from
to the volatility of water. We need to get more buyers
many diseases. The mindset is an issue. They don't calculate
for
the health cost of water.
infrastructure and the farmers depend on the local
Though people face water shortage, when asked if they would be ready to pay more if they get 24 x 7 piped water supply, they replied in the negative. In short, they want free water supply to be provided by the government. Water pricing becomes an emotive issue. We need a sustained narrative. How can our women be productive if they spend two hours of their time, getting up in the middle of the night and fight with others on the street to fetch their water? We pay a heavy cost. Water is also a social multiplier. Once we fix water, lot of other things get fixed. Girls start going to schools, marriages get fixed and we get better outcomes. Unfortunately, water has moved from being a responsibility to a right. The failure to stay with farm laws tells us how difficult it is to bring reforms in India. Reforms in the water sector also have to be carefully worked out. Decentralised water distribution, where the benefits and costs will somewhat match, is the best 38
MAR 2022
the
onions.
There
is
not
enough
market
traders. If a farmer sells to ten buyers, the dynamics will change. The other thing which we all can do is to question what we eat. If we eat rice and wheat and the government provides them in ration shops, the farmers will grow only rice and wheat. If they grow millet and we eat rice, what will the farmers do? The change has to start from the demand side. What can individuals do to solve the water problem?
I have been insisting on decentralisation. Let’s not try to solve India’s water problem. The biggest advantage of India is its population. One Chennai is equal to four Singapores. If we can get just one quarter of Chennai to adopt meaningful regulations and practices, it can trigger a wave of innovations that brings jobs, contributes to GDP and creates water resilience. Each of us must feel that water is our responsibility. If we do so, then there is hope.
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