Water & Wastewater Asia March/April 2021

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Photo credit: loren joseph / Unsplash
“In mid-2019, 18% of India’s rural households
had access to piped water. At least 18.97
crore (189.7 million) rural habitations are
getting less than 40 litres of water per capita
per day. Additionally, there are 256 districts
which are suffering from an acute water crisis,
due to the depletion of groundwater.
Most of these districts are in Telangana,
Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. Irrespective
of the source of water, in most parts of rural
India the availability of water decreases
dramatically in the summer months as water
levels drop and surface sources dry up.”
HAR GHAR JAL:
Water for all
Water is a precious resource – and in India,
it’s a limited one. Part two of this two-part series
looks at Water & Wastewater Asia’s interview with
Xylem’s Rajul Mehrotra, to find out exactly what
Xylem’s Smart City and Smart Infrastructure
programme will do to ensure a 24/7 water supply.
In 2018, South Africa’s Cape Town introduced
the concept of “Day Zero” to the world, in a
bid to focus the public’s attention on reducing
water usage and better managing water
consumption.
That same year, Indian think tank NITI Aayog
published its Composite Water Management
Index (CWMI), noting that India could be on its
way to a similar fate – 14 out of 24 surveyed
states were classified as Low Performers on
their Water Index scores.
Alarmingly, these states included Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Haryana –
populous states, home to over 600 million
people – and the CWMI suggested that these
By Natalie Chew
findings highlighted a “significant water
management risk for the country”.
The CWMI’s parallels drawn towards “Day
Zero” would become more accurate than
expected, with the Chennai water crisis
in 2019 leaving officials little choice but to
declare that “Day Zero” had been reached
when all four main reservoirs supplying water
to the city had run dry after two years of
deficient monsoon rainfall.
“AN ACUTE WATER CRISIS”
Speaking to Rajul Mehrotra, leader of Xylem’s
Smart City and Smart Infrastructure business
in India, paints a bleak image of the country’s
current water crisis.
To alleviate the situation, India’s government
has introduced the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM),
aiming to achieve Har Ghar Jal – piped water
supply for all – to all rural households by 2024.
In addition to this, Mehrotra shared, India’s
private sector has also risen to the challenge
and is working on long-term solutions.
“New technologies in purification and
auto-maintenance systems are paving the
way to a better future; the introduction of
IoT technology, sensors, and data-driven
approaches in water management are
important steps toward solving this problem.
With IoT, the real-time tracking of water
quality, water consumption and other
important elements can assure safe drinking
water. At Xylem, our end-to-end expertise in
water supply projects and smart solutions,
new-age water quality monitoring, and
non-revenue water (NRW) management
techniques means we too are helping to
support communities tackle these serious
water challenges.”
HOW IT WORKS
Xylem’s vision of Smart Cities and Smart
Infrastructure for India includes solving
water issues with advanced products and
technologies, as well as a 24/7 water supply
for everyone. Mehrotra is of the notion that
innovation is key to addressing the world’s
major water challenges – a topic he’s
expounded on in Xylem’s recent One Minute
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