New Delhi, Nov 17: With India poised to consume nearly
one-fifth of the world's water needs by 2025, development
specialists have begun research into the sources that need to be
tapped.
One such step is taken by the International Water Management
Institute (IWMI), which will open a new office in Delhi tomorrow.
According to Patrick Fuller of Iwmi's water, food and environment
programmes, if current trends continue unchanged, by 2025 India will
consume 396 cubic km of water. This is more than double the
projection for us (191 cubic km) and nearly one-fifth of the total
global water consumption that year.
IWMI, which has offices in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and Anand,
Gujarat, has been conducting research on the sustainable use of
groundwater in India, where tube-wells provide 60 per cent of the 65
million hectares of irrigated farmland, accounting for 13 per cent
of the country's GDP.
By 2025, irrigated land will have increased to 100 million
hectares of which 85 per cent will rely upon groundwater irrigation,
says IWMI. In some parts of India such as northern Gujarat,
over-extraction of groundwater is threatening food and livelihood
security, it adds. In Assam, coastal Orissa, north Bihar and north
Bengal, however, groundwater reserves remain under-exploited,
according to IWMI.
''Improving irrigation practices among farming communities is one
step, but India also needs effective institutions and policies for
better water management,'' says Professor Tushaar Shah, principal
researcher at IWMI.
''It's not enough to know how fast ground water levels are
dropping by each year, we also need to understand the survival
strategies of farming households,'' he adds.
Bureau Report
