India on course to achieve the target of providing tap water to every household by 2024- Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

Mumbai | April 12, 2022

Union Minister for Jal Shakti Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat today pitched for rainwater harvesting, water conservation, recycling and reducing dependency on ground water to solve the water-related issues of the country.  Addressing a National Water Conference titled “India Water Vision 2040 & Beyond” in Mumbai today, Shri Shekhawat said  the per capita availability of water in India has been falling and that India may soon become a water stressed nation’. He said ‘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’.

Shri 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, Shri Shekhawat said the average annual rainfall in our country is 1184 mm. He said ‘About 4,000 bn cubic meters of water comes from the annual precipitation and the harvestable component is around 2000 bn cubic metres; our total water-bearing capacity on surface is less than 300 billion cubic metres’. This challenge brings with itself great opportunity of rainwater harvesting and water conservation, he added.

Jalshakti Minister said ‘as a nation, India is among the highest consumers of ground-water and we need to decrease our dependence on this resource’. He also suggested that recycling of water in all possible ways should be encouraged in our country.