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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Coming water shortage

Coming water shortage

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published Published on Feb 9, 2010   modified Modified on Feb 9, 2010

India could face a massive 50% water deficit by 2030, the biggest globally, says the recent report of the Water Resources Group (WRG). 

Fortunately, the supply-demand gap could well be filled, with vision, proactive policy and only modestly higher sectoral outlays, it adds. The WRG, consisting of a panel of global experts, estimates the ‘water availability cost curve’ to meet the heightened demand at about $5.9 billion per annum, or just over 0.1% of projected 2030 GDP.

The study finds that water demand would add up to nearly 1.5 trillion cubic metres then, more than double the 740 billion cubic metres today, driven by the demand for rice, wheat and sugar of a ‘growing’ domestic population, a large proportion of which is moving towards a middle-class diet. For water-resource security, we need improving water efficiency and productivity in farming, where, says the report, 80% of the potential solution for bridging the supply-demand gap lies. Now, the base-line figures indicate that to meet increased demand for food and feed would require bringing an additional 31 million hectares of farm land under irrigation, assuming present day water-intensity levels.

However, if existing rain-fed and irrigated land could be made more productive, it would substantially reduce additional demand for water, says the report. Productivity boosting measures include no-till farming, improved drainage and optimised fertilizer usage. Also required is a whole range of extension services, improved crop protection technologies, integrated pest management and, most significantly, ‘improved germplasm’ read better seeds, on both existing irrigated and rain-fed land.

Further , improved irrigation control and drip irrigation measures have the potential to cost-effectively close the implied water gap. For that, we need forward-looking agri-policy , including reasonable water pricing and governance so that, for instance, the Ganga basin can become even more of a cereal basket than it currently is. 


The Economic Times, 9 February, 2010, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/Coming-water-shortage/articleshow/5550513.cms
 

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