Monsoons: India's Yearly Bonus — And The Cost Of Losing It, Again

The southwest monsoon is India's annual lifeline, delivering nearly 70% of the nation's total rainfall and underpinning our $4-trillion-plus economy.

But climate change is making its arrival and persistence unpredictable, turning what should be a season of abundance into uncertainty for farmers, city planners, and the entire ecosystem. Yet India loses much of this valuable rain as surface runoff, leading to flash floods in places and droughts in others, around the same time frame. 

This paradox exists in structural voids: poor drainage, uncontrolled soil erosion, and inadequate rainwater harvesting. Urban India also faces the additional crisis of impermeable concrete. Thus, our cities cannot absorb or direct the monsoon rain, leading to waterlogging, congestion. 

India extracts 25% of the global groundwater, the largest in the world. Agriculture and allied activities, especially high-yield crops, including paddy and sugarcane, exacerbate the pressure on groundwater.  

However, there are some silver linings, policy interventions have led to a reduction of groundwater extraction by 1.84% in the past 4 years in Maharashtra. To truly transform monsoon rainfall into a perennial asset, India must adopt a holistic approach, which includes:

Sub-surface drainage systems and aquifer storage and recovery systems are functioning well in urban and rural areas, directing excess rainwater from flood-prone regions into storage or groundwater recharge, thus preventing waterlogging and soil erosion. If utilised in combination with landscape-level scientific measures like check dams and recharge wells, these systems can store a lot of the monsoon's excess for the subsequent dry months.

With the addition of rainwater harvesting and efficient filtration and desiltation, filtered, pure water seeps into the soil alone, reducing chemical leaching from pesticides and fertilisers and protecting aquifers for generations to come. The recent success of Khandwa demonstrates the development of water infrastructure under the Jal Shakti Jan Bhagidari Abhiyan. It alone constructed a staggering 1.29-lakh-plus water conservation structures.

For water-scarce and coastal regions, desalination plants are an option for non-potable applications, addressing the issue of the ongoing availability of water. New desalination and filtration technologies are enabling the treatment of harvested rainwater for drinking, offering additional options for rural and urban societies.

While some state governments and city civic authorities have made rainwater harvesting mandatory for new construction, the time is ripe for a uniform national policy. Inclusion of rainwater harvesting and recharge systems in all developmental and infrastructure projects is an imperative for India's water security. Enforcement must be followed by education and incentives so that these systems are not just installed but also maintained and optimised for long-term performance.

Successful rainwater harvesting practices from Khandwa or the most recent announcement of the Tapti Mega Recharge Project, touted as the world’s largest groundwater recharge project, have set high benchmarks in water management for local, state and central governments to strategise and execute.

The time to act is now. Let's move from conversation to commitment, from policy to practice, and ensure that not a single drop of this year's water bonus is lost to neglect.

Yashovardhan Agarwal is the managing director of Welspun BAPL and director of Sintex.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of NDTV Profit or its editorial team.