India: Peak Water

The water problem is also an oil problem

Economic Times,

23 September 2012

All those who believe oil and water don't mix, here's a quick 21st century update. The faster we run out of fresh water, the earlier we shall run out of oil. Their destinies are more closely entwined than ever before. Like oil, the world has a finite quantity of water which lies in its oceans, rivers and polar caps. The water cycle used to keep us well supplied with enough to drink, cook, bathe, feed farms and factories.

A swelling global population, accompanied by climate change, altered this balance between demand and supply. Today, with supply woefully short, water has to be pumped from deeper inside the earth, transported long distances and recycled. All this takes energy, mostly in the form of oil and its close substitute electricity.

Ground Realities

Agriculture, which uses 80% of India's fresh water, is a good example of how demand for water can only be slaked by using more oil. Around 60% of the water fed to crops is drawn from underground. Farmers are using 20 mn diesel and electric pump sets for a job once reserved for government irrigation canals. Groundwater remains the only drinking water source in most of India's rural households.

With increasingly erratic rainfall and overuse, the water table has plunged so low that more powerful pumps need to work longer and harder. India's per hectare energy consumption is rapidly rising due to the water shortage. This year's drought pushed India's diesel consumption up 14% in June to 1.5 million barrels per day, according to International Energy Agency. The Central Electricity Authority says Indian farms consumed 120,209 million kWhs during 2009-10. This translates into about 859 kWh per hectare per annum, given the net sown area of 140 mn hectares. Total energy use in production of principal crops in India has increased 4-5 times between 1970 and 2005.

Oil into Food

It won't stop here. Power availability on Indian farms is about 1.7 kW/ha at present and by the end of the 12th Plan, it must increase to 2.1 kW/ha to achieve national agricultural production targets, says the Planning Commission. So, the more crops we grow in future to feed our billion, the more water we shall need, and the more oil we shall burn. In short, agriculture is turning oil into food.

Urban consumers are equally dependent on oil for water. Most metros are transporting water from sources more than 200 km away. Electric gensets, backed by diesel ones, pump water to consumers at a cost that is escalating with each hike in energy tariffs. Add to this the cleaning of sewage and recycling of urban waste and you see how the water in our tap each morning is crucially dependent on ships bearing affordable oil docking at port.