India heading to a massive water disaster!

India has 18% of the world’s population, 2.6% of landmass and 4% of renewable water reserves.  This is something that we need to be acutely aware of.  And on top of that, we are messing up the water resources that we do have at an alarming rate.  Looks like we don’t just believe in suicide, but collective and mass suicide.  As this note says very correctly – we are headed towards a disaster unless we completely change the way we think and work with water.

In 1951, there was a per capita availability of 5177 cubic metres of water; in 2001 that figure reduced to 1820 m3, and in 2011 that had dropped to 1545 m3. Unless someone figures out a way of making water in a laboratory, or a cost efficient way of desalinating large amounts of sea water, without disturbing the marine eco system, there is a disaster just around the corner, and there seems to be no urgency to tackle it. There is going to be, sooner or later, a massive shortage of water.

The availability of water will only drop as we go on, unless we find a way to reduce our population drastically.  If we do not reduce our population, the shortages and the natural disasters will reduce them.  Here is an episode of Satyamev Jayate, that captured the all the issues very well.