NEW DELHI — In the Vivekananda Camp slum, adjacent to the US embassy in New Delhi, communal taps supply brackish water for about two hours a day. Water delivered by tankers provides one additional bucket to each of its 1,000 residents for drinking and cooking.

In parts of the arid state of Rajasthan, southwest of the Indian capital, tap water is available once every four days for an hour. In rural areas near Mumbai, women and children travel more than a mile to get water.

Bengaluru, India’s tech hub of 14 million people, reeled under a water shortage this year and had to rely on tanker deliveries.

“We don’t wash the floor or do the laundry for days sometimes,” said Sampa Rai, a 38-year-old in Delhi’s Vivekananda Camp, who scrambles before dawn every day to meet the first tanker delivering water. “Not even the dishes. We have to manage with what we have.”

The world’s most populous nation has suffered from water shortages for decades, but crises are coming around with increasing frequency. This year, for example, the summer has been one of the hottest on record and the crunch has worsened with rivers and lakes drying up and the water table falling.

The shortages are affecting rural and urban Indians alike, disrupting agriculture and industry, stoking food inflation and risking social unrest. Contaminated water kills about 200,000 Indians each year, according to the government. People and the economy are suffering.

That is adding urgency to public and private-sector efforts to conserve the resource, find ways to recycle wastewater and reduce the country’s over-reliance on the annual monsoon, especially in the agricultural sector.

Ratings agency Moody’s warned last week that India’s growing water stress could affect its growth, which at a projected 7.2% this April-March fiscal year is the highest among major economies.

“Decreases in water supply can disrupt agricultural production and industrial operations, resulting in inflation in food prices and declines in income for affected businesses and workers, especially farmers, while sparking social unrest,” Moody’s said.

The government plans to more than triple wastewater recycling by the end of the decade to 70%, according to a federal government policy document dated Oct. 21, 2023 that listed priorities for the next five years.

Krishna S. Vatsa, a senior official at the state-run National Disaster Management Authority, confirmed the targets in an interview last week.

Authorities also plan to cut the extraction of fresh water — ground water and surface water from rivers and lakes — to less than 50% by the end of the decade from 66%, the highest rate in the world, said the document, which has not been made public and was reviewed by Reuters.

It will also launch a national village-level program this year to recommend crops to farmers based on local water availability, Mr. Vatsa said.

Details of plans to address the water crisis have not been previously reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already ordered authorities to build or refurbish at least 75 lakes in each of the 785 districts of the country. The government says work has been started or completed on more than 83,000 lakes. Experts say such lakes can help recharge the water table.

Mr. Modi launched a near $50-billion program in 2019 to provide all rural households with tap water. The government says it has now covered 77% of more than 193 million such families, up from 17% five years ago, but residents and experts say not all pipes have water.

“It makes the issue of conservation far more urgent,” Vatsa said. “You cannot sustain such a national pipeline without the availability of water. The pipes will run dry.”

He agreed some taps could already be dry.

WATER STRESSED
India relies substantially on the annual monsoon for its 1.42 billion people and its largely rural-based economy, where water-intensive crops like rice, wheat and sugarcane take up more than 80% of the overall supply.

The monsoon itself is prone to severe and extreme weather conditions. Catchment areas are getting scarce because of rapid urbanization, so even in a good monsoon, much of the rainwater drains off into the sea.

India’s annual per capita water availability, at about 1,486 cubic meters, is set to fall to 1,367 cubic meters by 2031 as its population grows, government projections show. The country has been “water stressed,” defined as per capita availability of less than 1,700 cubic meters, since 2011.

“We have a crisis now every year,” said Depinder Singh Kapur at Indian research body Centre for Science and Environment.

“Earlier it used to be drought years versus normal years, now a water crisis is happening every year and with more intensity.” There are pockets where private enterprises are addressing the crisis.

In Nagpur, a city of 3 million people, the Vishvaraj Group said it helped build a $100-million plant in 2020 that treats 200 million liters of sewage per day, extracting 190 million liters of treated water that it sells to two thermal power plants.

Founder Arun Lakhani said the freed up fresh water will be enough to take care of the expected population growth of the city for the next 35 years.

Some industries are investing in waste water recycling and rain harvesting to cut their dependence on fresh water.

Tata Steel plans to cut its fresh water consumption to less than 1.5 cubic meters per ton of crude steel produced at its Indian operations by 2030, from about 2.5 cubic metres now. JSW Steel also has similar plans.

“At least to plug the gaps in urban areas, treated waste water is going to be one important resource that we need to start acknowledging,” said Nitin Bassi at Indian think-tank The Council on Energy, Environment and Water.

Experts say nearly 90% of water supplied to homes can be recycled, but infrastructure for water distribution and sewage treatment has failed to match the growth of major cities and untreated waste ultimately flows into rivers.

Mr. Modi’s administration is adding sewage treatment capacity to lift the current rate of 44% in urban areas so more water can be recycled and used in industries, agriculture and other areas.

Between 2021 and 2026, it plans to invest about $36 billion to ensure equitable water distribution, reuse of wastewater and mapping of water bodies, the government has said.

THIRSTY FARMS
The cultivation of crops like rice in semi-arid states has led to rampant extraction of groundwater through borewells and steep falls in water tables, according to government and industry officials.

“The elephant in the room is agriculture,” said Lakhani of Vishvaraj. “We still use flood irrigation, we are not on drip or sprinkler irrigation. If we save just 10% water used in agriculture, it will take care of water problems of all the Indian cities.”

The government plans to implement a nationwide rural program on water use this year, said Mr. Vatsa, the disaster management official.

“For every village we need to have water budgeting,” he said. “How much water is available? How much should be used for irrigation? How much should be used for your domestic purpose? That would determine what kind of crops you are going to plant.”

Asked about possible resistance from farmers, who are a powerful voting bloc, he said: “There’s no other choice. The water table is just going down and at some point it becomes completely unviable. The borewells fail.” — Reuters

BRUSSELS/PARIS — When President Emmanuel Macron shocked France last month by calling a snap election, he was gambling with the future of Europe as well as his own country.

While much depends on the second round of voting on Sunday, it already seems clear that Mr. Macron’s role as a driver of European integration will be significantly diminished.

The two most likely scenarios — a government led by the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen or a hung parliament — would present unprecedented challenges for the European Union (EU).

The big fear for the EU’s traditional political mainstream is an outright RN victory, forcing Mr. Macron to “co-habit” with a government hostile to his vision of European sovereignty.

Even a parliament with no overall majority, resulting in an unwieldy coalition or parties cooperating case-by-case, would deprive Mr. Macron of a government committed to his policies.

In either case, a heavy question mark would hang over some of his boldest initiatives – from joint EU borrowing to fund defense spending by doubling the EU budget to deploying French troops inside Ukraine to train Kyiv’s forces.

As France and Germany traditionally form the engine that drives the 27-nation European Union, the bloc could face a double dose of political paralysis as its two most important pro-EU leaders would be on the back foot. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saw his party crushed in European Parliament elections last month, is struggling to hold his coalition together and is braced for strong far-right showings in upcoming regional polls.

“Macron is severely weakened at home, which will have consequences for his position in Brussels as well as for the Franco-German relationship,” said Elizabeth Kuiper, associate director at the European Policy Centre think tank.

While Europe’s far-right parties are still far from their goal of taking over the EU and repatriating powers back to the national level, they have wind in their sails. They made gains in the European Parliament elections, where Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s party was a big winner.

A new Dutch government with far-right participation has just taken office. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has taken over the EU’s rotating presidency and announced the formation of a new pan-European “patriotic alliance”.

“A weaker France and Germany coupled with a stronger Italy and Hungary clearly will shape the future of the EU,” said Ms. Kuiper.

MACRON PUSHBACK
Mr. Macron has told EU counterparts France will continue to play a leading role in the bloc, with a big share of the votes in the European Council of EU leaders and his party at the heart of the pro-EU coalition in the European Parliament, French officials say.

“France remains France, with its weight,” said one.

But diplomats say much of the nitty-gritty of EU policy work is done in meetings of government ministers — and the next French government looks certain to be at the very least less Macron-friendly than the current one.

Should the RN’s candidate for prime minister, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, form a government, some diplomats wonder if he may try to adopt an at least semi-cooperative stance with EU bodies — taking a page from Ms. Meloni’s playbook.

But the party’s policies and statements suggest clashes with both Mr. Macron and Brussels would be inevitable.

Ms. Le Pen has said an RN-led government would nominate France’s next European commissioner — a key role in the EU executive. But that is traditionally the president’s prerogative — and Mr. Macron has already signaled he wants to keep incumbent Thierry Breton.

The RN also wants France to get a rebate from the EU budget, something the EU is highly unlikely to provide. And while the RN’s economic policies have changed repeatedly in recent weeks, they may fall foul of the EU’s fiscal rules.

Karel Lannoo, chief executive of the Centre for European Policy Studies think tank, said initiatives to boost European economic competitiveness such as an EU capital markets union would also be at risk.

“The problem for the EU is that if it doesn’t have member states strongly supporting it, then it’s very hard (to move forward),” he said.

Among diplomats in EU hub Brussels, some are in “wait-and-see” mode, given the outcome of the second round is uncertain.

One described the mood as “nervous but calm.” But some Eastern Europeans expressed more anxiety — and concern that Macron had unnecessarily put Europe’s future at risk in reaction to a defeat in the European Parliament elections.

Eastern European leaders have been encouraged over the past year as Mr. Macron became bolder in support for Ukraine and more willing to question the West’s “red lines” with Russia.

“His words were music to our ears … That was so recent and now it is gone,” lamented one senior official from the region.

“It is looking very serious,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“My fear is that President Macron has definitely overplayed his hand.” — Reuters

ON THE CEILING of a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists have discovered artwork depicting three human-like figures interacting with a wild pig in what they have determined is the world’s oldest-known confidently dated cave painting — created at least 51,200 years ago.

The researchers used a new scientific approach to determine the minimum age of the newly disclosed painting inside the Leang Karampuang cave in the Maros-Pangkep region of South Sulawesi province by using a laser to date a type of crystal called calcium carbonate that formed naturally on top of the painting.

“The method is a significant improvement over other methods and should revolutionize rock art dating worldwide,” said Maxime Aubert, a specialist in archaeological science at Griffith University in Australia and one of the leaders of the research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The scene, dominated by a representation of a pig measuring 36 inches by 15 inches (92 cm by 38 cm) that is standing upright along with three smaller human-like figures, is painted in a single shade of dark red pigment. There are other images of pigs in the cave as well.

The researchers interpreted the painting as a narrative scene, which they said would make it the oldest-known evidence of storytelling in art.

“The three human-like figures and the pig figure were clearly not depicted in isolation in separate parts of the rock art panel,” said Griffith University archeologist Adam Brumm, another of the study leaders.

“Rather, the juxtaposition of the figures — how they are positioned in relation to each other — and the manner in which they are interacting were clearly deliberate, and it conveys an unmistakable sense of action. There is something happening between these figures. A story is being told. Obviously, we don’t know what that story was,” Mr. Brumm added. 

The researchers used the same dating method to reassess the age of another Sulawesi cave painting from a site called Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4, also depicting a narrative scene, this time depicting apparent part-human, part-animal figures hunting pigs and dwarf buffalo. It turned out to be at least 48,000 years old, upwards of 4,000 years earlier than previously thought.

“We, as humans, define ourselves as a species that tells stories, and these are the oldest evidence of us doing that,” Maxime Aubert said.

In the Leang Karampuang painting, the interaction between the human-like figures and the pig, a species still inhabiting the island, is somewhat cryptic.

“Two of these figures are holding objects of some kind, and at least one figure seems to be reaching towards the pig’s face. Another figure is positioned directly above the pig’s head in an upside down position,” Mr. Brumm said.

Little is known about the people who created the Sulawesi cave paintings. Aubert said the paintings may turn out to be older than the minimum age determined by the new testing and possibly date to the first Homo sapiens wave to sweep through the region, eventually reaching Australia about 65,000 years ago, on their migration out of Africa.

Until now, the oldest-known cave painting was one at Leang Tedongnge cave, also in Sulawesi, from at least 45,500 years ago.

The Leang Karampuang painting, the researchers said, predates the cave paintings of Europe, the earliest of which is at El Castillo in Spain, dating to about 40,800 years ago.

There is a hand stencil painting from Spain’s Maltravieso cave that some scientists have dated to around 64,000 years ago and attributed to Neanderthals. Other scientists have disputed the age of the painting and have argued that it was created by Homo sapiens.

“This discovery of very old cave art in Indonesia drives home the point that Europe was not the birthplace of cave art, as had long been assumed. It also suggests that storytelling was a much older part of human history, and the history of art in particular, than previously recognized,” Mr. Brumm said.

“The earliest Sulawesi rock art is not ‘simple,’” Aubert added. “It is quite advanced and shows the mental capacity of people at the time.” — Reuters