Guarantee Strategic Drinking-Water Reserves for Every Citizen

India has made major progress in bringing piped water to households. Jal Jeevan Mission, for example, targets rural household supply of at least 55 litres per person per day of prescribed drinking-water quality on a regular and long-term basis. As of July 2026, the government reported functional household tap connections for about 82% of rural households.

But a tap connection does not by itself guarantee that water will be available during prolonged drought.

India receives large quantities of water during the monsoon, while many parts of the country experience severe shortages during dry periods. Reservoir capacity, groundwater availability and rainfall also vary enormously across states. A state may therefore have extensive water infrastructure yet still lack enough water specifically available for households during a prolonged drought.

India needs to measure water security differently:

If rainfall is severely deficient for several consecutive years, how long can every state continue providing safe water to its people?

India should establish a national Strategic Drinking-Water Reserve Standard requiring every state to demonstrate sufficient dependable water reserves to provide 150 liters per person per day for three years.

The requirement is straightforward:

1 million people: 0.055 BCM per year → 0.164 BCM for three years

10 million people: 0.548 BCM per year → 1.64 BCM for three years

100 million people: 5.48 BCM per year → 16.43 BCM for three years

Therefore:

Required Strategic Reserve = Population × 150 litres × 365 days × 3 years

Each state should conduct a verified water-security assessment determining how much water from its existing reservoirs and other dependable sources would actually remain available for household consumption during a severe multi-year drought.

That amount should then be deducted from its three-year requirement.

Three-Year Requirement − Existing Dependable Drinking-Water Reserve = Drinking-Water Storage Deficit

States that already meet the standard would not need additional storage. States with a deficit should be required to close it.

Government should fund the infrastructure necessary to do so as a core public responsibility.

Depending on local geography and hydrology, this could include new regional reservoirs, expansion of existing reservoirs, off-stream storage that captures excess monsoon flows, restoration and expansion of lakes and tanks, managed aquifer recharge, or other appropriate large-scale storage systems.

The national government should establish the standard, measurement methodology, and independent verification framework. States should prepare regional water-security plans and build the infrastructure necessary to meet the standard.

The objective should not be to prescribe one type of dam or reservoir. It should be to guarantee the outcome:

Every state must be able to demonstrate three years of dependable household water reserves.

A national dashboard should publicly report Days of Drinking Water in Reserve for every state and major water-supply region. This would make water security measurable and allow investment to be directed first toward the areas with the greatest deficits.

Water scarcity depends not only on how much rain falls in a year. It also depends on whether water available during wet periods can be stored and carried forward into dry years.

California provides a useful example of this approach in the United States.

California experiences large swings between drought and very wet years. Its State Water Project therefore operates an interconnected network of dams, reservoirs, canals, and pumping plants that stores water and transports it more than 700 miles. The system supplies water to almost 27 million people, as well as agriculture.

California complements physical infrastructure with mandatory forward planning. Large urban water suppliers must prepare Urban Water Management Plans every five years, assess the reliability of their water sources over a 20-year planning horizon, and maintain water-shortage contingency plans. They must also conduct annual assessments of expected water supply and demand and report anticipated shortages and planned responses. California’s current planning guidance also provides for analysis of water supplies during five consecutive dry years.

India should apply the same underlying principle at much greater scale: plan for drought before the drought arrives, store water when it is available, and know in advance whether sufficient water exists to protect households during prolonged shortages.

The proposed three-year reserve is an India We Deserve policy target, not an existing U.S. or Indian standard. Before implementation, basin-level studies would need to determine how additional storage can be created while maintaining environmental flows and downstream water obligations.

The goal is ultimately simple:

No Indian household should lose access to safe water because the monsoon failed. Water security should be planned, measured, and funded before a drought begins.

And government should treat the infrastructure required to guarantee that security as one of its most fundamental responsibilities.