India's Water Economy : Bracing for a Turbulent Future
For 150 years India has made major investments in large-scale water infrastructure, bringing water to areas that previously lacked it. The results have been spectacular, both nationally, through the production of food grains and electricity, and re...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9766190/indias-water-economy-bracing-turbulent-future http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11764 |
| Summary: | For 150 years India has made major
investments in large-scale water infrastructure, bringing
water to areas that previously lacked it. The results have
been spectacular, both nationally, through the production of
food grains and electricity, and regionally, as projects
have generated direct and indirect economic benefits.
Once-arid areas have become centers of economic growth,
while historically well-watered areas have seen slower
progress. The poor have benefited greatly from such
investments. Poverty in irrigated districts is one-third
that in unirrigated districts. India needs more
water-storage capacity, appropriately scaled. The present
system is capable of storing only 30 days of rainfall,
compared with some 900 days in the major river basins of
arid areas of developed countries. And the need for storage
will grow, as global climate change begins to be felt: rapid
glacial melting is likely to occur in the western Himalayas
in coming decades, accompanied by greater variability of
rainfall in large parts of the subcontinent. But
India's water management system is not sustainable.
Without significant increases in investment and profound
changes in the way India's water institutions are run,
the country will face water shortages and environmental
problems that will gravely affect its people and its economy. |
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