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ABOUT EVENT
There is little doubt that availability of water deeply affects economic, social and human development. Today India has over 18 % of the world’s population, with only 4% of world’s renewable water resources and 2.4% of the world’s land area. India is also one of the 10 major water users in the world, in terms of volume, using 646 cubic kilometer of water a year.
Poor water resource management, wide temporal and spatial climate change and pollution have created a critical situation in several parts of the country. A recently released NITI AAYOG report has revealed that about 600 million people in India are facing high to extreme water stress, making the country water distressed. Frequent droughts and floods are adversely impacting over 50% of India’s rain fed agriculture. With 80% water basins being stressed, the country’s groundwater in some places is declining by as much as 3feet per annum.
The average annual per capita water availability in 2001 and 2011 in India stood at about 1820 cubic meters and 1545 cubic meters respectively. This figure is expected to reduce to 1341 and 1140 by 2025 and 2050 respectively. (Source pib.nic.in) Rapid increase in water demand triggered by population growth, urbanization and changing lifestyles poses a serious water security challenge to India. Estimates show that by 2030 the country’s water demand is likely to be twice the available supply translating into an eventual GDP loss of about 6%.
Against this backdrop, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is organising CII UP Water Summit highlighting crucial links between water availability and development at different levels, a must for India to deal with its water crisis. The theme of the Summit is “Economic Growth and Human Development in the Context of Water Scarcity”. This theme is timely and appropriate given that economic development and water are intimately connected in more ways than one.
The Summit will recognize that unless water scarcity and quality challenges are addressed on a war footing, India’s economic growth and human development will be negatively impacted. Increasing demands of a rapidly industrializing economy and urbanizing society such as India, have however, come at a time when the potential for augmenting supply is limited. The Summit will thus stress upon the need for designing a national water management strategy, making investments in water infrastructure, adopting advanced technologies, creating New Water sources, adopting principles of circular economy and implementing innovative water management solutions.