Water Scarcity in India

Water is an essential resource to sustain life. From 50 - 90 percent of the weight of living organisms is water. Water is the major constituent of living matter. Water, essential for growth of all crops, is the natural resource in shortest supply. More than 20 countries lack sufficient water to grow enough food for their people. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses. According to a UN report two-thirds of mankind will suffer moderate to severe water crisis within next 30 years if remedial steps are not taken. World Bank report estimates 5 million deaths from unsafe drinking water and investments to the tune of $ 600 billion worldwide to repair and improve water delivery system.

Water scarcity in India is miserable. Today, there are thousands of villagers and towns facing an acute drinking water shortage. Water supply plants are not able to supply sufficient water in cities. Pollution on our water resources is on rise. Water management efforts have yet not been made very effective. It has given us a poor scenario. Water demand in India is for four primary consumptives uses, namely irrigation, power production, domestic and industrial. Agriculture, and other water management aspects are there in the constitutions of India, but the water crisis still remains an incomplete national task. In the area of water management -it is known that water quality deteriorates due to repeated use, no serious attention has been paid to the qualitative aspect of water resources. The time is not far away that the volume of wastewater discharged by the Indian industry may be half the volume of domestic sewage generated in the cities. The water of Ganga and Yamuna is the worst victim as both wastewater (Human and Industrial) mixes.

How water is conserved, used and distributed in communities and the quality of the water available can determine if there is enough to meet the demands

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