Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh top Niti Aayog’s water index report

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are ranked the lowest in the report, the apex think-tank’s second.

Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Goa have been ranked highest among non-Himalayan states in the Niti Aayog’s annual Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released on Friday. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are ranked the lowest in the report, the apex think-tank’s second.

Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Goa have been ranked highest among non-Himalayan states in the Niti Aayog’s annual Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released on Friday.

The CWMI is a collection of country-wide data on water governance and management aimed at encouraging “competitive and cooperative federalism”. States and Union Territories (UTs) have been ranked on the index, which comprises nine themes and 28 indicators across themes. They have been divided into three categories: non-Himalayan states, Northeastern and Himalayan states, and UTs.

Among the Northeastern and Himalayan states, Himachal Pradesh has been adjudged number one in 2017-18, followed by Uttarakhand, Tripura and Assam. CWMI 2.0 ranks various states for the reference year 2017-18 as against the base year 2016-17.

“This study is undertaken under competitive federalism. This report comprises nine themes and covers 25 states, two UTs. We couldn’t get data from West Bengal, Mizoram, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir,” Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.

Among UTs that submitted their data for the first time, Puducherry has got the top rank. In terms of incremental change in index (over the 2016-17 level), Haryana ranks first among general states and Uttarakhand among Northeastern and Himalayan states. On average, 80% of the states assessed over the last three years have improved their water management scores, according to the report.

The report comes at a time when parts of India are facing acute water shortage. By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual 6% loss in the country’s GDP, according to the think-tank.

“Worryingly, 16 out of the 27 states still score less than 50 points on the index (out of 100), and fall in the low-performing category. These states collectively account for 48% of the population, 40% of agricultural produce, and 35% of economic output of India. Top performers such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh have further increased their scores over the last three years while out of the 14 low-performing states from FY 15-16, only Haryana, Goa and Telangana have been able to cross the 50-point threshold. Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Nagaland, and Meghalaya still score less than 40 points,” the report said.

The fall in rank can be explained by a lack of improvement (resulting in relatively lower scores as the scores of other states improved) or even a decline among states across themes, according to the report.

“Some sort of divergence is happening in the management of water... States that are at the bottom in terms of rank are further declining... This is the second year and I’m sure that will evolve over time. This index as of now tells you about processes but the final outcome will be known later... We need to include the variable of agriculture in the next report. What happens in agriculture will have more of an impact. Is area shifting from water intensive to less intensive crops? To meet future need, we have to save water in agriculture,” Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand said.

The report comes in the backdrop of the Centre’s target to provide tap water to every household by 2024 under the Jal se Nal scheme.