Pramod Bhasin is still coming to terms with the idea that Gurgaon, for all its glitter, may become uninhabitable in a few years. Genpact was one of the first global companies to set up office here — way back in the '90s — and Bhasin, who is the non-executive vice-chairman and former CEO of the company, has witnessed the breathtaking transformation of an agrarian district into an international business hub.
On the surface, Gurgaon continues to stir to life every morning with people rushing to offices within stylized glass-facade buildings and shoppers thronging the malls. Given the affluence, it would be difficult for anyone to suppose that the end of the city could be around the corner. But outrageous as it may sound, Gurgaon is on its deathbed. The problem is water and the signs are ominous enough to convince anyone who has studied the problem in detail that the city is on the brink.
The city has almost exhausted its groundwater with an estimated 30,000 borewells having been sunk even as the water table recedes year after year. Almost all residential areas in the district were dependent on groundwater since there was no piped supply in a majority of the colonies here in the first place. As the groundwater is also drying up, people have been dependent on water tankers for many years now.
A Near-death Situation
Bhasin was one of the first business leaders to move to Gurgaon in 1998, soon after DLF's KP Singh convinced General Electric's Jack Welsh to move their outsourcing business into the city. The idea of the city becoming almost uninhabitable in less than three decades horrifies him. But it does not sound like an unreasonable proposition, he maintains. "It would be catastrophic because a lot has been invested in Gurgaon already. We have been saying that this can't happen. But it is happening. We will have to tackle it [the water crisis]."
Bhasin is not shocked to hear that experts have predicted a neardeath situation for the city. "We know about the extent of the water problem here. It is this crisis that has turned so many people in the city into activists and they are all doing a fine job trying to get the government to address the issue."
A study done by Megha Shenoy of Resource Optimization Initiative, a firm that does industrial ecology research in developing countries, says Gurgaon will be able to provide less than half the per capita water recommended internationally by 2020.
The study says that Gurgaon would have only around 48 litres per capita per day (LPCD) of water by 2020. The international standard is 130 LPCD. The population of the city would have increased from 25 lakh to 43 lakh by then. The study also says that in 2010, water available in the city was 83 LPCD.
"It is a very important issue. With rising urbanisation and a decadal population growth rate of 250%, the concretization of the city will continue. It will affect the catchment areas and lakes in the city. This combined with greater reliance on groundwater by the housing societies and industry will exacerbate the situation and the city may slowly die in future," says Ranen Banerjee, executive director — public sector and governance, PwC India.
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