Projections made by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) indicate that one-third of the world population would face absolute water scarcity by the year 2025. NITI Aayog’s report (2018) on ‘composite water management index’ also underlined the depressing state of water stress.
Though India has the largest irrigated area in the world, about 85 per cent of total irrigation potential (139.90 million hectares) has already been created, leaving limited potential for future use. An estimate of the Ministry of Water Resources (2008) shows the total demand for water will overshoot the supply by 2050. With this alarming scenario, how are we going to solve the ever increasing water scarcity problem?