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Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
- abhshkdz 7y agoMore context on this: https://twitter.com/jslaternyc/status/1144483586042548225 https://twitter.com/jslaternyc/status/1144483586042548225
- vinni2 7y agoThanks for this tweet link I was going to forward this in WhatsApp to my family but decided not to after reading these tweets.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- King-Aaron 7y agoI really don't think Twitter is the correct platform for long-form discussions and writeups. It's so disjointed to try and read through that.
- kkarakk 7y agoIs it really that hard to scroll down?
- ptah 7y agoso it could be worse? i doubt they would have extrapolated in a non-linear fashion
- ecmascript 7y agowhy do people tweet like this? It is impossible to follow. Like.. just write an article or a blog post instead. :/
- abdullahkhalids 7y agoBecause people don't click on links on twitter as often as they bother to read a tweet thread. But also, I actually like this form of communication. By the nature of the medium (one thought per tweet), you are forced to discard all superfluous details. Instead each tweet/thought must be a strong point. This is compared to a blog, where the only thing holding you back from adding fluff is your own intellectual discipline. Can you explain why you find this impossible/discipline to follow?
- ecmascript 7y agoWell, not all discourse needs to happen on twitter. Sure, it is nice when there is something you can actually convey in just a few sentences but I have a hard time reading this. It is hard to follow because my reading gets interrupted, and I need to focus on where I am instead of what information I am receiving. I donno. I just think it's hard and it's very annoying so I'm rather inclined to stop reading because honestly I don't care enough to make the hassle worth it.
- abdullahkhalids 7y agoA tweet thread is also often meant to be chewed upon. Because minimal details are provided with the expectation that the reader will be able to fill in some of the obvious blanks with a little thought. So I usually read these threads a tweet at a time, wondering on the implications of each statement (a lot of times I can't think of any). But whatever works for you.
- ecmascript 7y agoI rarely read tweet threads, mainly because I am rarely on twitter but also because there is often little reason to. Most of the threads is simply just angry people who disagree or people that agree and want to spread the word.
- homonculus1 7y agoThere is a serious disconnect between medium and message when people find it necessary to manually number every message, and stoop to doing so on a regular basis. You might still find it readable but the absurdity of that behavior should at least be a glaring red flag. Twitter's layout is designed around the assumption that discrete posts will be distinct thoughts or status updates, but this breaks when people force even a paragraph through. I find it grossly unreadable to sift through so much whitespace, redundant usernames, redundant time stamps, numerous like and share icons, etc. that interrupt the text when it's broken into tiny chunks in this manner--I can read it, but I hate doing so. IMO this is both Twitter's fault for existing, since the prevalence of this kind of posting seems to indicate that microblogging is a failed concept, and the userbase's for insisting on using it for content which is obviously unsuitable. Obviously a lot of people are willing to put up with this format but I see it as a huge mess and I avoid Twitter links whenever possible.
- jdonaldson 7y agoI always thought watersheds were a great way of defining state-level regions. They're more stable than boundaries set by rivers, and are more natural than arbitrary lines of latitude/longitude. In the (near) future, there's going to be a lot of hand wringing over who has what rights to which water. The only way to completely solve it is to have one region be in control of the entire course of the water's flow. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/19/map-the-united-states-of-watersheds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0f5a35bcd78c https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/19/m... Granted, redrawing the map based on watershed doesn't solve India's problem. But, it sounds like that in the future their drinking water is going to come from careful management of groundwater, which will require a lot of state level agreements. Right now, I'm not optimistic those agreements will happen smoothly.
- amrx431 7y ago> Granted, redrawing the map based on watershed doesn't solve India's problem Thats a recipe for political disaster. Identity based politics is the only paradigm of politics in India. Currently southern states in India are organised on linguistic identity and every now and then there are statements from main-stream politicians calling for secession and establishing a separate country to counter the influx for North Indians who are painted as separate racial and ethnic group by these politicians. Breaking up existing units of governance organised on the linguistic identity will add fuel to the fire of separatism and powers like China and Pakistan will be more than happy to assist the separatists movement that starts because of this stupidity. BTW this is the wet dream of Pakistan and China as to India's future. Be noted the human cost a separatist movement will cause. India's bulk of fighting forces is made up by youths from north India. Do this and we have a Syria or Bangladesh with a scale of 1 billion plus people.
- ahamedirshad123 7y agoWhat are you smoking? That's what happen when you try to impose your language on us through some education policies. That's what happens when you remove the Tamil name with some name in a language somewhat foreign to us. And calling us racists? Who coined the name madarasi for South Indians? It's the north of Vindhya.
- carboy 7y agoIndia does not have a water issue, they have a population issue, but it’s really hard to mange the population, so natural resources are being consumed beyond sustainability. This problem is not confined to India, it’s a problem with humanity. Nature is working on a correction.
- chewz 7y agoThis is one point of view. You could also say that resources of India had been depleted by greed, overexploatation and the lack of proper governanace. You can't run a multimilion city on borewells and groundwater - the government should had built proper infrastructure - pipelines, reservoirs, water meters, sewage treatment plans etc. In a way India is a minature to the entire world.
- bobosha 7y agoI beg to differ, India's population density is comparable to many Western European countries. They a problem of population distribution. Like many developing nations, populations cluster in large cities leading to pressures on resources.
- mrcode007 7y agohttps://pudding.cool/2018/10/city_3d/ https://pudding.cool/2018/10/city_3d/
- thaumasiotes 7y ago> India's population density is comparable to many Western European countries. I went down worldpopulationreview.com's list; I'll post my list annotated with country size as a reply to this comment. Findings: India, the country, is #28. It has essentially equal population density to the Netherlands (#29, in Europe!), while being a modest 87 times larger. Belgium (#33) has only slightly less density, and India is merely 102 times bigger. The next European country down is England at #50. It's much closer to the size of India -- 8% as large -- and has two-thirds the density. Pakistan is #55; it's about four times the size of England with comparable density. #59 is Germany; it's less than half the size of Pakistan with comparable density. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, who you might have thought would have super-high density, are equal to Germany. (Monaco and Vatican City really do have super-high density.) The only other country-sized European countries in the top 70 are Switzerland and Italy, #68 and #69. They have half the density of India. Italy is a tenth of India's size. Switzerland is slightly larger than the Netherlands. Bangladesh, by the way, is #12, with more than double the density of India (in about 1/20 of the space). So I can't agree that India's population density is comparable to "many Western European countries". It's comparable to a couple of diminutive European countries. Equal density over 100 times the area is not what you would expect; it's something very unusual about India. In fact, we can just compare the regions directly. Europe has 743 million people in 10 million square kilometers of land for an average density of 74.3 people per square km. India (including Pakistan and Bangladesh) has 1740 million people in 4 million square km, for an average density of over 400 people per square km (roughly equal to the density of India the country, which makes sense), about 6 times the figure for Europe.
- gingabriska 7y agoIs there a way to limit the size of these big cities? What if they start requiring a domestic visa process to let in the people from other states? Everyone wants a life of high standards of living which cities provide along with employment. If we do not limit the number of people who can get in, it will naturally result in whole population of India moving into these cities. This will result in people making wherever they live better instead of just moving to a better city.
- barry-cotter 7y ago> If we do not limit the number of people who can get in, it will naturally result in whole population of India moving into these cities. The population of France does not all live in Paris, nor that of the USA in New York. Even in as small a country as Luxembourg not everyone lives in Luxembourg City.
- gingabriska 7y agoI must ask, does Paris or Luxembourg has slums like Mumbai has? Higher prices doesn't stop people below poverty line from coming to Mumbai and living below the standards here.
- barry-cotter 7y agoNo, in part because they don’t have rent control that has frozen rents since 1947 or urban planning laws which make building densely illegal. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/04/twisted-tale-rent-control-maximum-city.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/04/tw... https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-microeconomics/rent-control-mumbai-india https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-microeconomics/...
- gridlockd 7y agoThe way it's generally balanced out is exploding property prices and an unlivable mess of traffic and perhaps pollution. However, people are willing to endure a lot if living standards are generally low.
- nippler 7y agoS U P E R P O W E R U P E R P O W E R 2 0 2 0 0 2 0
- peterbraden 7y agoThey’ve already run out in some, and truck in water. Those with money are able to pay for fresh water.
- modi15 7y agoThere have been a flurry of alarmists posts like these but somehow I cant wrap my head around how will we run out of water. I stay in Bangalore and some people do have the problem of water - but for the most part it doesnt seem to be an issue of 'lack' of water perse but mostly distribution issues. Bangalore has been having intermittent rains throughout the summers and even though few people use them now, but if situation gets dire almost everyone should be able to setup a rain water harvesting system and get by. India is also installing solar at a rapid pace and the cost of electricity is going down. The next level solution could be just to use sea water that India is surrounded by, and use some of that solar power to filter this water. Somehow I dont get all this alarmist news. Maybe im missing something.
- easytiger 7y ago> Somehow I dont get all this alarmist news. Maybe im missing something. Population growth + increased quality of life = more resource use
- nonamechicken 7y agoThe twitter link posted by abhshkdz (https://twitter.com/jslaternyc/status/1144483586042548225 https://twitter.com/jslaternyc/status/1144483586042548225) took me to this article: >"Dear BBC, Bengaluru isn’t running out of water soon. Here’s why!" http://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/bangalore-water-scarcity-solutions-2018-23160 http://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/bangalore-water-scarcity-... So, I am confused about whether we really have a problem or there is some other agenda. I know lot of people in Bengaluru don't get govt water supply (Cauvery water). Was speaking to a friend just yesterday who was complaining about the quality of the tanker water they get in their apartment, that some people are getting skin diseases because of it and that they use filtered water for washing their baby and their hair. Desalination seems to be expensive: >"Rs 1.36 crore a day for just 200 million litres of water; can Chennai really afford desalination plants?" http://chennai.citizenmatters.in/chennai-cost-of-desalination-vs-surface-water-treatment-plants-8405 http://chennai.citizenmatters.in/chennai-cost-of-desalinatio... The above article concludes that >Our water problems are essentially due to mismanagement of water bodies, and Chennai is not a rain-starved city. “Chennai’s average annual rainfall of 139 cm is sufficient to recharge its aquifers. We don’t have perennial rivers, but we have abundant surface water resources. The city of London, with just 60 cm of annual average rainfall, relies on surface water resources. It is shameful that we have opted for the extravagant choice of desalination plants instead,” said Sai Praneeth, Director, Hydro-Meteorological Innovative and Explorative Solutions (HYMIES). Also just came across this Twitter account. They seem to be posting a lot of info about India's water situation. https://twitter.com/zenrainman https://twitter.com/zenrainman
- DyslexicAtheist 7y agohow much is Coca-Cola[1][2] to blame for this. Afaik it has been the center of criticism in India for over a decade now: Coca-Cola operates 58 water-intensive bottling plants in India. In the southern Indian village of Plachimada in Kerala state, for example, persistent droughts have dried up groundwater and local wells, forcing many residents to rely on water supplies trucked in daily by the government. [1] https://www.thoughtco.com/coca-cola-groundwater-depletion-in-india-1204204 https://www.thoughtco.com/coca-cola-groundwater-depletion-in... [2] https://waronwant.org/media/coca-cola-drinking-world-dry https://waronwant.org/media/coca-cola-drinking-world-dry
- PeterisP 7y agoI'll assume that every ounce of bottled water or soft drink replaces water that people would have drank anyway, and possibly with more efficiency - a larger percentage of the (expensive) bottled water gets used on the unalienable human need to drink than if the same water was piped to houses and used for both drinking and washing. The plants may be blamed for transferring water scarcity from places where the drinks are bought and drunk to the places where the bottling plants are operated, but not for creating water scarcity.
- baybal2 7y agoSame issue in Pakistan, it's a very watery place in comparison to say, Europe or Southern USA, but you have hard time finding a place with reliable tap water: 1. Water theft from utilities 2. Gigantic and wasteful usage of water in agriculture 3. Leaky pipes and contamination from sewage 4. Utilities are just starting to recover from decades of extreme mismanagement 5. Tanker mafia of course doing its worst to keep all of above going
- ForFreedom 7y agoI think the govt must stop factories, soda factories, mineral water companies taking ground water ASAP.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoAgricultural irrigation is a far bigger problem, particularly because existing systems are hugely wasteful due to subsidies (water and even the electricity to pump it is often free), leakage and corruption.
- benj111 7y agoHow many litres of water does it take to make a litre of mineral water? How does that compare with a kg of lettuce, or tomatoes, or beef? Bottled water has its problems, water use isnt really one of them.
- invalidusernam3 7y ago> How many litres of water does it take to make a litre of mineral water? Interesting question, I found this article[1] which says: - for North American companies, it takes 1.39 liters to make one liter of water - That's less than the global averages of a liter of soda, which requires 2.02 liters of water - A liter of beer, meanwhile, needs 4 liters of water, wine demands 4.74 liters. Hard alcohol, it turns out, is the greediest, guzzling 34.55 liters of water for every liter [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/10/28/241419373/how-much-water-actually-goes-into-making-a-bottle-of-water https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/10/28/241419373/ho...
- benj111 7y agoI don't think that includes the plastic bottle. https://naturalsociety.com/study-analyzes-wastefulness-bottled-water/ https://naturalsociety.com/study-analyzes-wastefulness-bottl... Veg still tends to be worse though.
- fredgrott 7y agoSA is closer getting more than 35% of drinking water via desalinating sea water
- gingabriska 7y agoWhen you cover large swarth of land with concert the rain water goes on the roof and on the road goes to gutter and makes it way to sevege. In absence, of this it is drawn underground and refills underground water. When people were building these concert jungles, they didn't keep in mind where the water comes from and how exactly it's refilled and what we can do to replenish the capacity lost due to our development projects.
- ptah 7y agoI've see a number of documentaries about indians that have used permaculture to turn desert into food producing forests. maybe they need to apply their knowledge in cities?
- martincollignon 7y agoWant to make a difference on climate change as a technologist? Feel free to join these communities actively looking for support and with ongoing projects (that are alive): - https://climateaction.tech/ https://climateaction.tech/ - https://techimpactmakers.com/ https://techimpactmakers.com/ - https://www.tmrow.com/ https://www.tmrow.com/
- WhateverWorks 7y agoHigh birth rate is the main and only problem in India, like in many other countries in the world. Multiplication without control leads to a human disaster. Only birth limitations can be a solution.