India on brink of worst-ever water crisis

India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history with some 600 million people facing acute water shortage. The crisis will worsen as demand is projected to be twice the available supply by 2030

BASELINE WATER STRESS
Less than 10% of available surface water used annually
10-20%
20-40%
40-80%
More than 80%
Arid & low ater use

WATER DEMAND AND SUPPLY IN INDIA
(Billon cubic metres)
Supply  Demand
2008 650 634
2030 744 1,498

2030: Demand to exceed supply twofold

Haryana
Rajasthan
Uttar Pradesh
Bihar

New Delhi
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad

21 cities, including New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad likely to run out of groundwater by 2020

6% of GDP likely to be lost by 2050 due to water crisis

States ranked lowest at managing water – such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana – are home to nearly half of India’s 1.3bn population and bulk of agricultural produce

Around 200,000 Indians die every year because they have no access to clean water

Sources: National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog),
Wild Water, State of the World’s Water 2017, India Watertool
Picture: Newscom
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