India is expected to experience a severe water crisis by 2020 with the per capita availability of water projected to be less than 1,000 cubic metres.
Indian water scenario was a matter of grave concern, as 85 per cent of water was used for agriculture, 10 per cent for industry and five per cent for domestic use, according to a paper presented at a national symposium in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Being a developing nation with a large population on the negative side of the poverty line, economic water scarcity (limited access to fresh water due to lower affordability) assumed equal, if not, greater importance as that of physical water scarcity, it said.
Text: PTI
Image: Farmers pray for rain as they sit on a dry paddy farm in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. | Photograph: Sandeep Kumar Singh/Reuters.
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