While traditional tanks systems in Madurai continue to fulfill the drinking water and irrigation needs of the rural population, rapid urbanisation is gradually destroying them!
Water demand and availability cannot be viewed in isolation. It is rather an outcome of the whole set of actions that people undertake to improve their lives and enhance their livelihoods.
Substituting groundwater irrigation by canal irrigation will not help in maintaining the current levels of food production in India. Managing groundwater demand will, finds a study.