SETHI STRESSED THE NEED FOR AN INTEGRATED
APPROACH TO TACKLE WATER RELATED ISSUES LIKE FLOOD-DROUGHT SYNDROME
Shri Arjun Charan
Sethi, Union Minister for Water Resources addressing the inaugural
session of the Water Summit – 2003, organised by FICCI here today,
in his opening remarks laid importance on conservation and management
of water. He said that the per capita availability of water is
reducing day by day due to increase in population. At the same
time the water demand is increasing because of various factors
such as urbanisation, industrialisation, improvement in the living
standards and increased requirement of water for high yielding
crops. He further elaborated that two out of three persons on
earth will live in water stressed conditions.
He said that the
country suffers from drought and flood syndrome years after years.
Considerable amount of replenishable ground water of the country
is yet to be exploited but in certain pockets particularly around
major cities, ground water has been over-exploited leading to
lowering of ground water tables. In some areas, the over-use of
irrigation water has resulted in water logging problems. These
instances indicate that there is need for better understanding
of the issues related to water resources and adoption of a comprehensive
and integrated approach in addressing the problems.
Realising the importance
and urgent need, the Government of India declared 2003 as Fresh
Water Year in keeping with the United Nations’ Resolution declaring
2003 as International Fresh Water Year. A series of activities
have been planned and taken up with the objective of increasing
awareness regarding scarcity value of fresh water, conservation
and efficient use of fresh water, preservation of quality and
its eco-system and initiating community partnership for decision
making.
He further stressed
the need to work jointly to realise the vision of optimal sustainable
development, maintenance of quality and efficient use of country’s
water resource to match the growing demands on this precious natural
resources with active involvement of all stakeholders in order
to achieve accelerated, equitable economic development of the
country. He drew the attentions of the audience to conserve each
and every drop of water, preserve its quality and use without
any wastage. He exhorted on the participants at the Water Summit
to deliberate all related issues to come out with concrete recommendations
to cope up with aspirations of various segments of the society.
Shri A. K. Goswami,
Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources taking part in the discussion
said that the per capita water availability of the country has
reduced to almost 1/3rd of what it was at the time
of independence due to increased water demand of the galloping
population. He said that the present water requirement is likely
to go 600 billion cubic meter (bcm). The requirement is likely
to go up to 1093 bcm by the year 2025 and will further increase
to 1447 bcm meter by the year 2050. On the other hand, it has
been estimated that out of 1869 bcm of available water resources,
only 1122 bcm can be utilised. However, he said that the country
has a very challenging task ahead and requires integrated approach
for planning and development of available water resources with
stress on judicious use, least wastage and the policy of conservation
for improved efficiency of water resources systems.
Prof. Y. K. Alagh,
an eminent water expert and planner gave an in-depth description
of the water situation facing the country with focus on conservation
and preservation of water. Office bearers of the FICCI gave the
outline of the day’s deliberations at the outset.
