Demand and Consumption

The goal of securing universal access to safe drinking water continues to be elusive for India inspite of the impressive strides made in the current years.

South India's rivers are rain-fed unlike those in the North, which are glacier-fed due to the contrasting topography and climate. Unlike the Himalayan system, many of India’s peninsular rivers dry up during the hotter half of the year, leaving lips and fields equally parched.

Punjab-Haryana at crossroads over the controversial Sutlej-Yamuna canal

In January 2016, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) Employees Union and residents of Nagpur yet again protested the privatisation of water services in the city.

Delhi, home to 16.75 million people, is in the grip of a major water crisis. Statistics by the Delhi Jal Board for the year 2011 suggest that the water deficit stands at about 250 million gallons per day with the supply being 830 million gallons per day.

Paraswani village in Balodabazar district, Chhattisgarh contains vast reserves of limestone, a sedimentary rock that is a primary ingredient in the cement manufacturing process. Since 1992, Ultratech Cement Ltd. (UTCL) followed by four other similar companies, have begun excavating this rock within a 30 km radius of the village.

As the demand for water is projected to increase globally, South Asia is becoming a hotspot where the economy and the population could be adversely impacted by poor water security due to growing household, agricultural and industrial needs, as well as increase in water-related disasters.

The threat of water security challenges faced by India

About WET 2016

There was a recent report in the Times of India on how Singapore, listed among the 20 smallest countries in the world, made water management and conservation efforts over the years. What lessons can India, a mammoth country draw from this small but densely populated country?

Sajan, a 14 year old Bhilala Adivasi boy studying in the Rani Kajal school in Kakrana in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh says, "We now save a lot of time as we bathe in the bathrooms and defecate in the toilets rather than in the open fields; and so we study better".