Water is a prime natural resource and a basic necessity for sustaining life on earth. Supplying adequate amount of potable water to the global population is a gigantic task in the wake of growing industrial and domestic needs. The threat of climate change and global warming which has aggravated the problem of water shortage is of particular concern to India as we are largely dependent on glaciers and rainfall for water supply. The United Nations World Water Development Report, Water: A Shared Responsibility emphasizes the need for good governance to meet the ever-increasing demand for water. The report asserts that mismanagement, corruption, lack of appropriate institutions, bureaucratic inertia and paucity of investment in human and physical sources mar water management today. The situation calls for right policy decisions and adoption of sustainable practices. The problem is acute in India because of its high population density, space and time variability of rainfall and increasing depletion and contamination of its surface and groundwater resources. Most water resources in India are contaminated by sewage and agricultural run-off. Besides, overuse of pesticides and chemicals in agriculture is the primary cause of groundwater pollution in India. Further, uneven water distribution across the country is another aspect of water problem. A large area of the country is water deficit whereas a small part is bestowed with abundance of water. This has led to inter-state conflicts. The present anthology contains well researched articles by eminent scholars who have deeply analysed the problem and its various implications. Major factors responsible for the problem have been studied in detail and some measures have been suggested to retrieve the situation. The book will serve as a reference source for students, researchers and policymakers and all those concerned with an ensured supply of water across the country.

Water: The Looming Crisis in India analyzes the key issues in developing national freshwater policies for the mainland countries of the South Asian sub-continent. Ray suggests that freshwater policy must cover all aspects of physical environment and human life, by noting that food and drought management are parts of freshwater policy and acknowledging that water is a scarce natural resource and has economic value. He calls for the development of basin-wide policies to minimize conflicts within riparian countries, as well as a freshwater policy baseline to minimize internal conflicts on water sharing arrangements. By pointing out the need for full participation of all stakeholders in developing a baseline policy including people displaced by the construction of large dams, Ray suggests a new system in which riparian countries are guaranteed that no water-related project proceeds without a transparently developed environmental impact assessment and evaluation of alternative options.

Crowded, hot, subject to violent swings in climate, with a government unable or unwilling to face the most vital challenges, the rich and poor increasingly living in worlds apart; for most of the world, this picture is of a possible future. For India, it is the very real present. In this lyrical exploration of life, loss, and survival, Meera Subramanian travels in search of the ordinary people and microenterprises determined to revive India's ravaged natural world: an engineer-turned-farmer brings organic food to Indian plates; villagers resuscitate a river run dry; cook stove designers persist on the quest for a smokeless fire; biologists bring vultures back from the brink of extinction; and in Bihar, one of India's most impoverished states, a bold young woman teaches adolescents the fundamentals of sexual health. While investigating these five environmental challenges, Subramanian discovers the stories that renew hope for a nation with the potential to lead India and the planet into a sustainable and prosperous future.

This publication presents the results of more than five consecutive years of focused research initiatives and designs from The University of Virginia School of Architecture towards the revitalization of New Delhi, India’s water bodies. In collaboration with the Delhi Jal Board, The University of Virginia’s Yamuna River Project is an inter-disciplinary research program, proposing to revitalize the ecology of the Yamuna River in Delhi and creating vital urban links with the Yamuna River as it flows through India’s capital city. Through the research, methodologies, and designs contained within this publication, this project aims to serve as a catalyst for the urgent recovery of the Yamuna River and its tributaries, building a publically accessible body of information and expertise resulting in visions of what an alternative future would be. Only by addressing human equality and the complexity of Delhi’s urban phenomenon can the social and ecological crises manifested through these neglected water bodies be solved.

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Economy - Environment economics, grade: 2, University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg, language: English, abstract: This term paper analyzed the attitude of India on water resources and needs in relation to industrial countries including the current state of water resources in the world. The comparative point of views between Austrians and Indians, based on the conducted survey of February 2012, should be analyzed. Relationships and impacts of the water scarcity should be drawn. Necessary steps for preventing a water crisis in the next thirty years in India will be considered and presented. In the chapters, the basics and a state of the art for the resource water will be reflected. A little view in the future will help to build conclusions for a possible way to avoid water stress in India. The author asked many students in Austria and India to the topic of water resources and sustainability. Which are the top three resources that will impact the business development of India? The answers were water, energy and agricultural land and by the Austrians energy, steel and at the last water.

India is facing its worst water crisis ever, and some believe that by 2030 it will fail to meet half its water demand. Water availability per person in India has been decreasing for decades, leaving parts of the country in a cruel Day Zero situation, shuttering factories and pushing farmers over the brink. As the climate heats up, it is likely that swathes of land will be submerged, water-related extremes will reshape industry and famine will revisit the country. In this fascinating, deeply researched book Mridula Ramesh takes us through 4,000 years of history to track how India's water has reached this critical point. From stories of ancient water-engineering marvels in the Indus Valley and Tamil Nadu to how water shaped medieval Delhi; from the burning fields of the country's north-west to the hilsa's curtailed journey; and from the forests of Kanha and dams in Arunachal to Kanpur's tanneries, Watershed uncovers how India's fate is gradually being sealed by the extremes of drought and floods. Armed with this understanding, Mridula Ramesh lays out pragmatic, scalable solutions that can work for both India's temperamental water and its democratic exigencies. She describes how determined water warriors are showing the way forward - from the fields of Bihar and Maharashtra to communities within Bengaluru's apartments and in the arid tracts of Rajasthan - and asserts that managing our water will usher in not just resilience but also the jobs India needs. Sobering and persuasive, Watershed is an urgent call to action to every Indian citizen to do what it takes to secure our shared future.

The book studies the relationship between large dams and water scarcity in Kutch. It argues that water scarcity is not merely natural, but is embedded in the social and power relations shaping water access, use and practices. Scarcity is portrayed as natural rather than human induced and this naturalisation of scarcity is beneficial to those who are powerful. This is a significant book in the light of the growing water crisis in India, and the world.

The prosperity and national security of the United States depend directly on the prosperity and stability of both partner and competing countries around the world. Today, U.S. interests are under rising pressure from water scarcity, extreme weather events and water-driven ecological change in key geographies of strategic interest to the U.S. Those water-driven stresses are undermining economic productivity, weakening governance systems and fraying social cohesion in scores of countries and, in the process, undermining the vitality of rural livelihoods, fostering local and ethnic conflicts, driving broad migratory movements and contributing to the growth of insurgencies and terrorist networks. While the U.S. intelligence community has steadily expanded natural resource concerns in their global threat analyses, our overseas development assistance remains locked into provision of water and hygienic services rather than responding to the full sweep of global water challenges including governance and policy failures, growing conflicts over water and the need for promoting sustainable transboundary water arrangements in partner countries. A fundamental departure from the past is urgently needed. Based on 18 case studies, Water, Security and U.S. Foreign Policy provides an analytical framework to help policy makers, scholars and researchers studying the intersection of U.S. foreign policy with the environment and sustainability issues, interpret the impacts of water-driven social disruptions on the stability of partner governments and U.S. interests abroad. The book also delivers specific recommendations to reorient U.S. development and diplomatic engagements that can forestall and prevent social disruptions and ensuing threats to U.S. prosperity and national security.

This comprehensive volume explores the interface between politics and policy making in the water management sector of India. The authors discuss the nature of the political discourse on water management in India, and what characterizes this discourse. They also explore how this discourse has influenced the process of framing water related policies in India, particularly through the ‘academics-bureaucrat-politician’ nexus and the growing influence of the civil society groups on policy makers, which are the defining feature of this process, and which have produced certain policy outcomes that are not supported by sufficient scientific evidence. The book reveals that the social and management sciences, despite being increasingly relevant in contemporary water management, are unable to impress upon traditional, engineer-dominated water administration to seek solutions to complex water problems owing to a lack of interdisciplinary perspective in their research. The authors also examine the current deadlock in undertaking sectoral reforms due to existing water policies not being honoured. This collection includes several research studies which suggest legal, institutional policy alternatives for addressing the problems in areas such as irrigation, rural and urban water supply, flood control and adaptation to climate variability and change. It was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.