On 15 September, the southern Indian state of Karnataka made it official – a majority of the state was drought hit. Whilst elements of the world face devastating floods, there’s a very actual menace of aquifers dipping and rivers working dry in India as El Niño tampers with the all-important southwest monsoon. This information comes shut on the heels of the Indian Meteorological Division’s announcement that August 2023 was the driest and hottest on file.
These are worrying developments for the world’s most populous nation by way of consuming water shortages and influence on agriculture, a sector that sustains hundreds of thousands of individuals’s livelihoods.
Industries and companies will even be affected. However additionally they play an vital function in addressing the issue as a result of, one, they’ve the cash to put money into options that might obtain long-term influence and, two, as a result of these carbon- and water-intensive sectors contribute to air pollution and shortage in particular watersheds and local weather change on a planetary scale. It’s crucial that this sector will get concerned and actively engages with different actors to resolve the large environmental challenges we face.
The ESG push for motion
So how can companies drive water-related collective motion and guarantee a optimistic influence in India’s river basins? Companies have began collaborating in sustainability efforts via mechanisms such because the Environmental, Social and Company Governance (ESG) framework. That is seen as important for avoiding each water challenges in river basins in addition to operational disruptions and prices to the enterprise itself.
There may be additionally a policy-level push. In India, the markets regulator, the Securities and Trade Board of India (SEBI), has mandated the highest 1,000 listed firms to reveal their sustainability stories from 2023. Coupled with the requirement to speculate a part of their income in company social accountability (CSR) initiatives, there’s clearly an impetus to take part in sustainability efforts. It’s one factor to construct a financial institution of funds however fairly one other to make sure it’s channelled accurately.
To keep away from greenwashing and obtain significant change, it’s crucial to direct enterprise to align their efforts with these of different native stakeholders in a area. It isn’t solely an ethical obligation; firms stand to achieve – each by way of greater income and its model picture – by investing in sustainable practices.
The issues we’ve got are too giant and complicated to behave alone
Given the complexity of the water drawback particularly in international locations like India with numerous landscapes and socio-economic situations, this isn’t going to be straightforward. Figuring out efficiency metrics and targets turns into step one to allow companies to take steps tailor-made to every area’s distinctive context. Multi-stakeholder collaborations then develop into an vital software to not simply determine drawback areas but additionally implement efficient options. It permits for native information, capabilities and progressive financing mechanisms to converge.
Research have proven that the normal approach of top-down sectoral-based water governance and administration mechanisms is incapable of addressing worsening water challenges, that are far too advanced to be solved by one stakeholder alone. The siloed type of governance that’s predominant within the water sector typically results in overlaps or duplication; there’s little coordination leading to ineffective options being applied.
Collaboration on assets, efforts and options between varied sectors is important for making certain the sustainability and resilience of assets. Failing to combine completely different sectors within the governance system typically ends in resource-based conflicts. A collaboration of this type is not going to solely consequence within the inclusion of numerous voices and insights to resolve a problem, but additionally present technical and monetary assets which can be restricted within the conventional type of fragmented governance. Pooling in assets will even guarantee much less danger to 1 get together.
Technical fixes are inadequate
Among the many completely different water challenges, let’s have a look at one instance – the problem of water high quality is one which has been persistently discovered throughout river basins in India. Over time, the nation’s central authorities has spent a number of hundreds of thousands of rupees on addressing water air pollution via varied tasks such because the Nationwide Mission for Clear Ganga, Nadanthai Vaazhi Cauvery Scheme (Tamil Nadu state in southern India) and Nationwide River Conservation Plan (NRCP) Scheme. The options are hardly ever efficient or long-lasting.
Solely implementing technical options like constructing extra centralised remedy crops with out holistically understanding on-ground issues like the dearth of sewerage community and stable waste administration plans, coupled with inefficient monitoring have resulted within the underperformance of tasks like these.
The Ramganga Mitras programme began by the World Broad Fund for Nature (WWF), however, is an instance of a profitable collective motion initiative to handle the problem of river well being. The challenge was began in 2013 with emphasis on citizen-driven motion for river conservation. It concerned varied person teams, communities, authorities companies together with enterprise. The variety in participation additionally allowed for a number of approaches to be thought-about from a concentrate on local weather change adaptation, experience in sustainable water administration in addition to industrial stewardship. The challenge thus tackled head-on the issue of lack of participation and dialogue between water customers.
Companies might play an vital function in multi-stakeholder efforts
In an equation much like the one at play for the Ramganga Mitras programme, enterprise might play a central function in funding, coaching and implementation actions inside the affected river basins. They may contribute by funding nature-based options, the place mandatory; selling progressive applied sciences like pump solarisation, in areas the place it’s projected to end in elevated yield and never worsen water shortage; and introduce new funding mechanisms equivalent to water trusts and drought funds for versatile cross-sectoral water allocation.
By way of coaching, companies might create interactive instruments for sanitation schooling, provide coaching in trendy agriculture and irrigation, present upkeep ability programmes for remedy amenities, and prepare authorities officers in Built-in Water Sources Administration. This might go a protracted method to addressing forestall information and ability gaps.
For on-ground implementation, companies can put money into and deploy consuming water and purification techniques, whereas additionally selling groundwater replenishment via methods like rainwater harvesting and treating wastewater to a excessive sufficient high quality to securely recharge aquifers. Moreover, they’ll provide technical help to communities accessing authorities funding for water tasks.
By piloting wastewater remedy and nature-based options, they’ll display efficient approaches. Furthermore, companies can contribute by creating and managing crowdsourced dashboards that present essential knowledge on water high quality and amount for monitoring and decision-making
However a primary step for any intervention, can be for the enterprise to first determine present multi-sector coalitions within the area and their concept of change to handle the water disaster. This manner, they’d determine present gaps and get entangled the place there’s a dire want for help. This fashion of significant collaboration will – in the long run – assist companies not simply mitigate operational and provide chain danger for themselves, but additionally have a wider basin-level affect.
Rashmi Kulranjan is a Bengaluru-based researcher on the Water, Atmosphere, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs, a analysis and innovation centre on the Institute for Monetary Administration and Analysis (IFMR). She can also be a PhD scholar on the Ashoka Belief for Analysis in Ecology and the Atmosphere (ATREE). She and her colleagues just lately revealed stories for the Water Resilience Coalition on challenges and alternatives for catalysing company water stewardship in three main river basins in India – Ganga, Cauvery and Krishna.
