Media Release Mangaluru, May 10: Water scarcity is either the lack of enough water or lack of access to safe drinking water. It currently affects around 2.8 billion people around the world, on all continents, at least one month out of every year and more than 1.2 billion people lack the access to clean drinking water. Water shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather-patterns (including droughts or floods), increased pollution, and increased human demand and overuse of water. The term water crisis labels a situation where the available potable, unpolluted water within a region is less than that region’s demand. Water shortages and unreliable water quality are considered major obstacles to achieve sustainable development and improvement in the quality of life. The water demand in the country is increasing fast due to progressive increase in the demand of water for irrigation, rapid industrialization, population growth and improving life standards. The existing water resources are diminishing (i) due to unequal distribution of rain water and occasional drought (ii) excessive exploitation of ground water sources and its insufficient recharge (iii) deterioration of water quality due to the discharge of domestic and industrial effluents without adequate treatment. This is resulting in water stress/scarcity. Issue of Water Scarcity In India As a country that receives sufficient rain, water scarcity in India is mainly attributed to human factors such as: * India’s population has steadily risen since independence. Absence of comprehensive family planning, and lack of education, spurred this. This in turn has increased the demand for water. But, no government has so far been able to equate the difference of water distribution – more than 50% of the country’s population lack access to safe drinking water. * Corruption and lack of planning and coordination are also blamed as factors of water scarcity in India. Many projects to supply safe drinking water are often stuck in red tape. * More than 80% of water needs of the country is met by exploiting the ground water resources of India. This has aggravated the depletion of water table, and led to an unprecedented water shortage. Per Capita Water Availability In India The per capita availability of water in the country is 1545 cubic meters as per the 2011 CENSUS. The average annual per capita availability of water in the country, taking into consideration the population of the country as per the 2001 census, was 1816 cubic meters which reduced to 1545 cubic meters as per the 2011 census, denoting that the per capita water availability in the country is reducing progressively due to increase in population. The daily drinking water requirement per person is 2-4 liters, but it takes 2000 to 5000 litres of water to produce one person’s daily food. Also there are reports that…