3 Maps Explain India’s Growing Water Risks

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An article for World Resource Institute:

http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/02/3-maps-explain-india%E2%80%99s-growing-water-risks

India is one of the most water-challenged countries in the world, from its deepest aquifers to its largest rivers.

Groundwater levels are falling as India's farmers, city residents and industries drain wells and aquifers. What water is available is often severely polluted. And the future may only be worse, with the national supply predicted to fall 50 percent below demand by 2030.

Enter the India Water Tool 2. 0. The new web platform is the most comprehensive, publicly available online tool evaluating India's water risks. Created by a group of companies, research organizations, and industry associations—including WRI and coordinated by theWorld Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)—the tool can help companies, government agencies, and other water users identify their most pressing challenges and carefully target water-risk management efforts.

The tool illustrates the depth and breadth of India's water-related challenges. A few trends emerge:

54 Percent of India Faces High to Extremely High Water Stress

The map below illustrates competition between companies, farms and people for surface water in rivers, lakes, streams, and shallow groundwater. Red and dark-red areas are highly or extremely highly stressed, meaning that more than 40 percent of the annually available surface water is used every year.

Read more at the above link

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2 Answers

  1. The things are not going to improve, as neither the government or nor the water utilisers are willing to part with the luxury, with which they are using water mercilessly. There is no discipline at the level of government departments and the water utilisers. In the irrigation projects which were sanctioned with a particular cropping pattern and water requirement, no efforts are being done by the central or state governments to adhere to that cropping pattern. Cultivators in the head portions of main canals, secondary canals and field channels are growing rice and sugarcane, whether approved cropping pattern approves it or not. Let the things go to the worst and there is scarcity of water as in California, and probably then only the government and policy makers and water utilisers will give attention for proper utilisation of water.