{"id":20075519,"date":"2021-07-08T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T18:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=75519"},"modified":"2022-01-19T15:59:47","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T10:29:47","slug":"investigation-water-crisis-sugar-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/water\/investigation-water-crisis-sugar-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden water crisis behind India\u2019s sugar dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor’s note<\/p>

The author was the recipient of the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award 2021 (environment)<\/a> for this story<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On a cold morning in the early winter of 2019, Shekhar Chauhan reached his small sugarcane farm to start a regular work day, only to find it flooded. The boundary of a nearby drain had broken and water spilled into the farms in the Muzaffarnagar district of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. A significant amount of Chauhan\u2019s crop was lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chauhan complained to the management of one of the eight sugar mills in the district. He said the mill was releasing water in the narrow drain. \u201cThe sugar mill officials unclogged the drain and fixed it. But when the mill started operating the following year, it was the same story.\u201d This time, however, Chauhan says nobody fixed the drain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His account is not an exception. In March 2020, Ram Bir, 48, also found his farm full of water. \u201cOvernight my wheat farm was filled with water. The water receded in about a week, but my crop did not survive,\u201d he says. \u201cPaudhey jal gaye they hafte bhar mei<\/em>\u201d (the plants were destroyed within a week).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Farmers<\/div>
Farmers working in a field in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh (Image: Monika Mondal \/ The Third Pole)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sugar for the world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chauhan and Bir are among the scores of farmers in Muzaffarnagar district who have been affected by wastewater released by the Triveni Sugar Mill in the city of Khatauli. The mill is the largest in Asia in terms of both production and storage capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>
Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

India is the world\u2019s second-largest producer<\/a> of sugar. Indian sugar and jaggery \u2013 an unrefined sugar popular across Asia and Africa \u2013 is found<\/a> in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Nigeria, Tanzania and the United States among other countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the country\u2019s sugarcane is cultivated in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is known as the \u2018sugar bowl of India\u2019. With 155 sugar mills, the state is also home to the second-largest processing industry in India. Sugar is the backbone of the local economy, but its growing environmental impacts are being ignored \u2013 with potentially disastrous consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n