Abstract:
AS mentioned in the National Water Policy (2012) water
a scarce natural resource, is fundamental to life, livelihood,
food security and sustainable development. India
has more than 18% of the world’s population, but has
only 4% of world’s renewable water resources and 2.4%
of world’s land area. With rapidly growing population
and improving living standards, the pressure on our water
resources is increasing and per capita availability of water
resources is reducing day by day. Due to spatial and
temporal variability in precipitation, the country faces the
problem of flood and drought syndrome. Overexploitation
of groundwater is leading to reduction in river flow,
declining groundwater resources, and salt water intrusion
in aquifers of the coastal areas. Over canal irrigation in
some of the command areas has resulted in water-logging
and salinity. The quality of surface and groundwater resources
is also deteriorating because of increasing pollutant
loads from point and non-point sources. Some major
urban areas already face serious water shortages compounded
by water pollution crisis, the latter often originating
from water-dependent and water impacting
agricultural and industrial activities. The climate change
impacts are expected to affect populations directly by
more frequent extreme events such as floods and
droughts, rising sea levels, changes in the seasonal distribution
and amount and type of precipitation such as snow
and rain, storage components of the water cycle such as
glaciers, snow pack and groundwater via recharge.
So far, the data collection, processing, storage and dissemination
have not received adequate attention. Low
awareness about water scarcity and its life sustaining and
economic value results in its mismanagement, wastage,
and inefficient use, as also pollution and reduction of
flows below minimum ecological needs. In addition,
there are inequities in distribution and lack of a unified
perspective in planning, management and use of water resources.
Further, questions relating to water resources
management and usage cut across many economic and
social sectors, including agriculture, fisheries, industry,
urban development, energy, environment, tourism and
public health.
