Shekhawat pitches for rainwater harvesting, conservation, recycling to avoid water stress
With demand for water going to increase further in coming years, India needs to adopt rainwater harvesting, water conservation, recycling and reducing dependency on groundwater to solve water-related issues, said Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, warning that the country could become water-stressed in coming years.
Addressing a conference in Mumbai recently, Shekhawat said the per capita availability of water in India has been falling and the country may soon become water stressed. About 50 years ago, the per capita availability of water in India used to be 5000 cubic metres, but now it has got reduced to just 1500 cubic metres due to increased population and enhanced water usage.
The challenges for India in terms of water-stress get more complicated due to its geographical diversity and the global Climate change. “India is a developing nation and the demand for water is going to increase further in coming years”, he said.
The Jal Shakti Minister made a strong pitch for adoption for rainwater harvesting, saying the average annual rainfall in our country was 1184 mm. “About 4,000 bn cubic meters of water comes from the annual precipitation and the harvestable component is around 2000 bn cubic metres; our total water-bearing capacity on surface is less than 300 billion cubic metres”. This challenge brings with itself great opportunity of rainwater harvesting and water conservation, he added.
As a country, India is among the highest consumers of groundwater and needs to decrease dependence on this resource. “Recycling of water in all possible ways should be encouraged in our country”, he said.
On the ambitious Jal Jeevan Mission, Shekhwat said India would definitely achieve its target of providing tap water to every household by 2024. Several states including Haryana, Telangana and Goa have already achieved 100 per cent of their targets. While 16.5 per cent of households had access to tap water in 2019, the figure has increased to 50 per cent now.
Shekhawat said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to all the sarpanchs of the country to hold a Gram Sabha to discuss water-related issues. As many as 250 districts of the country have been identified as water deficient districts and emphasis is being laid on conservation of traditional water resources there.
In the last two years, more than 2 lakh water conservation works have been carried out in 700 districts of the country and Rs 65000 crore has been invested in water conservation, Shekhawat said.
