Conserving Scarce Water Resources Dealing with Water Crisis in India

As most of India grapples with drought-like conditions, the situation of water scarcity in the country is predicted to turn worse with an increase in the overall population by 2050. In this article, Dharmesh Kumar Singh and Sonia Grover discuss the short-term and long-term implementation-oriented and evidence-based solutions that must be prioritized in our current water management practices.

- Dharmesh Kumar Singh and Sonia Grover

Can a water-stressed country achieve a high economic growth rate, environmental sustainability, and quality of life for its citizens? No, it is not possible. First, we must take care of our water resources and only then achieving the economy target of $5 trillion would be possible. India constitutes 17% of the world’s population but has only 4% of the world’s freshwater resources. More than 75% households do not have access to clean drinking water and nearly 90% rural households don’t have any access to piped water.

As per the Composite Water Management Report of NITI Aayog, each year, 2 lakh people die due to lack of access to clean water and nearly 600 million people of India face high to extreme water stress. India gets on an average 1197 mm of rainfall every year, which is equal to 4000 billion cubic metres (BCM) of total precipitation. However, 3000 BCM are lost due to runoff, and only the remaining 1000 BCM are available as surface and groundwater resources, amounting to around 1000 m 3 annually for per capita. When the per capita water availability goes lower than 1700 m 3 , a water-stressed situation arises, and India has been battling it for the past few years.

India is the world’s largest groundwater extractor and every year, it pumps out around 25% of global groundwater that is utilized in agriculture and domestic sectors. This leads to more than half of India’s districts facing the issue of groundwater depletion and/or contamination.