• Water resources are natural sources of water that are useful for human consumption and other purposes.
• 97% of the Earth’s water is saltwater, and only 3% is freshwater.
• Two-thirds of the freshwater is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps.
• The remaining freshwater is mainly found as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air.
• Natural sources of freshwater include surface water, under river flow, groundwater, and frozen water.
• Artificial sources of freshwater can include treated wastewater (reclaimed water) and desalinated seawater.

India’s Water Resources

• India receives an average of 1,170 millimeters of precipitation per year.
• The country accounts for 18% of the world’s population and 4% of the world’s water resources.
• India’s water resources are not uniformly distributed across its geography and time.
• The Indian Rivers Inter-link project is a potential solution to the country’s water woes.
• Despite extensive river systems, clean drinking water and irrigation water supplies are in shortage across India.
• India has only harnessed a small fraction of its available surface water resource.
• In 2010, India harnessed 761 cubic kilometers of its water resources, with 20% coming from unsustainable use of groundwater.
• Of the water withdrawn from rivers and groundwater wells, 688 cubic kilometers were dedicated to irrigation, 56 cubic kilometers to municipal and drinking water, and 17 cubic kilometers to industry.

Following findings of the report released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in August 2014:

• 54% of rural women in India had to travel between 200 metres and 5 kilometres daily to fetch drinking water in 2012.
• They walked an average of 20 minutes a day and spend another 15 minutes at the source of water.
• Every second woman had to spend 210 hours in a year fetching water, which means a loss of 27 days’ wages for these households.
• Women collectively cover 64,000 times the distance between the earth and the moon to fetch water.
• Water crisis is imminent in villages because of over-harvesting of groundwater resources. About 80% of the country’s drinking water needs are met by groundwater.
• 75% of women in states like CJ, MN, OD, JH have to travel long distances for drinking water.
• India records the world’s highest per capita water-borne diseases, even more than some of the least developed nations.
• In most large cities, about one-third of water never reaches the consumer due to leaks and poor maintenance. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, over 35% of water in Delhi and about 30% in Mumbai is lost due to leakage.

Ground Water

• Annual utilizable ground water resources in India: 433 bcm
• 58% of annual rechargeable ground water in India is contributed by monsoon rainfall, while 32% is contributed by seepage from canals, tanks, ponds, and other water structures and irrigation.
• Uttar Pradesh has the highest net annual ground water availability (~ 72 bcm), while Delhi has the least (0.29 bcm).
• India is a water-stressed country with per capita available water of 1545 m3, which is less than the threshold of 1700 m3 per year.
• The projected per capita water availability in India will become 1401 m3 and 1191 m3 by 2025 and 2050, respectively.
• 85% of rural and 50% of urban water supplies in India depend on groundwater for meeting drinking and domestic water needs.
• Punjab extracts 35BCM of ground water despite having an annual availability of only 20BCM, while Haryana extracts 13BCM despite having an availability of only 10BCM, making them fall under dark zones or higher ground water exploited areas according to the Central Ground Water Board.

Water Usage

• Irrigation is the largest user of India’s water reserve, accounting for 78% of total usage.
• The domestic sector uses 6% and the industrial sector uses 5%.
• The irrigation sector is projected to require an additional 71 bcm by 2025 and 250 bcm by 2050.
• Groundwater is a significant source of drinking water in both urban and rural areas, with 45% of irrigation and 80% of domestic water coming from this source.
• Overexploitation of groundwater has led to water scarcity in states such as Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, while arid climate leads to water stress in Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• Poor aquifer properties contribute to water scarcity in states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
• Other factors contributing to water scarcity include increasing population pressure, industrial growth, and rapid urbanization.

How safe is our water

• About 70% of surface water resources in India are polluted.
• Major sources of water pollution include wastewater from different sources, intensive agriculture, industrial production, infrastructure development, and untreated urban runoff.
• 2.9 billion liters of wastewater from industrial and domestic sources are dumped into the river Ganga without treatment every day.
• According to the WHO, half of India’s morbidity is water-related.
• Waste management has not been efficient enough to manage the increasing volume of waste generated daily in India, especially in cities.
• Only 29% of the waste generated in urban areas with a population of over 50,000 has municipal wastewater treatment capacity, and the gap is projected to increase.
• More than 70% of domestic untreated effluents are disposed of in the environment, contributing a substantial proportion of water pollution in India.

The costs of unsafe water

• 2.2 billion people do not have access to clean water at home.
• 2.3 billion people lack access to basic sanitation services, such as toilets or latrines.
• Every day, more than 800 children under five years of age die from diarrhea caused by dirty water.
• 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030.

The dilemma of Water Accessibility in Rural Areas

• In rural India, more people have access to phones than safe drinking water.
• Only 18% of the total rural population (833 million) have access to treated water.
• 41% of the rural population (346 million people) own mobile phones.
• 30% of rural Indians lack access to drinking water supply.
• 57% of rural women in India have to walk up to 5 km every day to fetch potable water compared to 21% in urban areas.

Climate Change and its implications on water

• Mean annual temperature in Asia is increasing and projected to increase by >2oC by the end of the 21st century, according to IPCC AR5 reports.
• Rising temperature contributes to glacial melts, resulting in glacier retreat and affecting water availability in Himalayan rivers.
• Almost 67% of the glaciers in the Himalayan mountain ranges have retreated in the past decade due to warming effects.

Water Footprint

• The water footprint of different products was calculated, with chocolate and leather having the highest footprints of 24000 and 17000 liters per kg, respectively.
• Other products with high virtual water footprints include sheep (10400 lt), cotton (10000 lt), butter (5550 lt), and chicken (4330 lt).
• Fruits and vegetables have the least virtual water footprints.