New Delhi: With water scarcity across the country already threatening to touch alarming proportions, even the Centre has acknowledged that there is a progressive reduction in levels of the precious mineral in terms of per capita availability.
Domestic and industrial sectors accounts for approximately 10 per cent (24.71 BCM) of the annual utilisation, according to the data.
This sinister scenario is in addition to the grim picture which government think tank Niti Aayog had painted, when in its composite water index released earlier this year, it had forecasted that 21 cities including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people.
According to the water index, by 2050, there will be an approximately six per cent loss in GDP owing to depleting water levels. Also the demand for potable water will outstrip supply by 2030 if urgent remedial steps are not taken.
The index had also pointed out that around 600 million Indians faced high to extreme water stress and about 2 lakh people died every year due to inadequate access to safe water.
Apart from this, critical groundwater resources, which accounted for 40 per cent of India’s water supply, are being depleted at “unsustainable” rates and up to 70 per cent of India’s water supply is “contaminated,” the index had further noted.
