The Nudge Theory And Our Water Crisis

The world’s second-most populous country is running out of water. Around 600 million people face “high to extreme” water stress. This roughly translates to 60 crore people, which accounts for 45 % of the population.

For all of us this often plays out in the terrain of familiarity, against the backdrop of the ever-looming dangers of the phenomena of water scarcity. But what if you were told that by 2020 around 21 Indian cities will run out of ground water? Shocking isn’t it? Particularly when you know that ground water makes up at least 40 % of the country’s water supply and with the other sources steadily depleting, this rather sounds like a death alarm.

Interestingly research has shown that more effective water conservation outcomes may be achieved through *persuasion* for behavioural and attitudinal change among water consumers.

Simply put, this implies that individuals today are more inclined to conserve water influenced by the spread of information, communication campaigns about water conservation rather than isolated, physical capabilities of conserving water.

A broader case can be made of the above point with the famous “nudge theory” that gained currency during the publication of the Economic Survey.

The nudge theory, which gained the spotlight when Richard Thaler bagged the Nobel Prize for behavioural economics in 2017, is based on the premise that human beings often need encouragement and intervention to get going and do what’s best for themselves or for the nation.

In this context, activities such as viewing water-conservation message videos on popular media sites, participating in voluntary initiatives aimed at water conservation, involving in writing blogs/ articles on the subject, or merely communicating the scarcity of water in one’s neighbourhoods/families could work as nudges for people.

Rather, these capabilities which are behavioral in nature, could nudge people to not only engage themselves in water-conservation practices but also help them induce their peers into the act of water-conservation.

PM Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, said the movement towards water conservation has to take place at the grassroots level. It cannot become a mere government programme.

Time for many ‘nudges’?