ABSTRACT
India faces a water crisis as per capita availability of freshwater is rapidly decreasing. The country has to devise a comprehensive and ecologically sustainable strategy that encompasses integrated management of surface water and groundwater over river basins. Matching the cropping pattern to water availability, making efficient water use together with extensive capacity-building of all the stakeholders for water demand management, would offer a sustainable solution. There is a need to understand the problems in greater detail covering the total assessed availability of freshwater, its utilisation, efficiency, and efficacy of the reservoir-based canal irrigation systems, comparative studies of groundwater over the last two to three decades, whether cropping pattern is in sync with water availability, and status of treatment and re-use of sewage water, and so forth.
