Per capita water availability has reduced in India: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

The per capita water availability in India has reduced over the last five decades, Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, sounding a note of caution.

“About 50 years ago, the per capita availability of water in India used to be 5,000 cubic metres. It has reduced to 1,500 cubic metres due to increased population and water usage,” Shekhawat said addressing a national water conference titled "India Water Vision 2040 & Beyond" in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Shekhawat further said 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 the coming years”, he added.

Pitching for rainwater harvesting, Shekhawat said the average annual rainfall in our country is 1184mm.

According to him, about 4,000 billion cubic meters of water comes from the annual precipitation and the harvestable component is around 2000 billion cubic metres; our total water-bearing capacity on the surface is less than 300 billion cubic metres.

This challenge brings with itself great opportunities for rainwater harvesting and water conservation, he added.

“As a nation, India is among the highest consumers of ground-water and we need to decrease our dependence on this resource,” he said and suggested that recycling of water in all possible ways should be encouraged in our country.

Shekhawat said that India will definitely achieve its target of providing tap water to every household in the country by 2024. He informed that several states including Haryana, Telangana and Goa have already achieved 100 per cent of their targets.

The Jal Shakti Minister further informed that while 16.5 per cent of households had access to tap water in 2019, the figure has increased to 50 per cent now.

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