Mention any two reasons that have increased pressure on India's river .
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Water is life because plants and animals cannot live without water. Water is needed to ensure food security, feed livestock, take up industrial production and to conserve the biodiversity and environment. Although, India is not a water poor country, due to growing human population, severe neglect and over-exploitation of this resource, water is becoming a scarce commodity. While this is a growing concern all over the world, India is most vulnerable because of the growing demand and in-disciplined lifestyle. This calls for immediate attention by the stakeholders to make sustainable use of the available water resources to ensure better quality of lives.
Global water availability
70% of the earth surface is covered with water, which amounts to 1400 million cubic kilometres (m km3). However, 97.5% of this water being sea water, it is salty. Fresh water availability is only 35 m km3. Out of the total fresh water, 68.7% is frozen in ice caps, 30% is stored underground and only 0.3% water is available on the surface of the earth. Out of the surface water, 87% is stored in lakes, 11% in swamp and 2% in rivers. As all the sweet water is not extractable, only 1% of the total water can be used by human beings (Anon. 2006).
As water was available in plenty, it was considered as a free resource since generations. However, with growing demand for water and depletion of the available water, assured supply of good quality water is becoming a growing concern. As the water resources are not evenly distributed, across different continents, some countries have surplus water while many other countries are facing scarcity of water. Likewise, there is skewed growth of population in different continents, resulting in a wide mis-match between the existing population and water availability. Among various continents, Asia has 36% of the available fresh water reserves, with over 60% of the world population where water is a scarce commodity.
In fact compared to Asia, Africa is in a better situation, where 13% of the population has access to 11% of the fresh water reserves. Australia and Oceana have plenty of water with 1% population owning 5% of the fresh water reserves, followed by North and Central America, with 8% population and 15% water reserves and South Am
Global water availability
70% of the earth surface is covered with water, which amounts to 1400 million cubic kilometres (m km3). However, 97.5% of this water being sea water, it is salty. Fresh water availability is only 35 m km3. Out of the total fresh water, 68.7% is frozen in ice caps, 30% is stored underground and only 0.3% water is available on the surface of the earth. Out of the surface water, 87% is stored in lakes, 11% in swamp and 2% in rivers. As all the sweet water is not extractable, only 1% of the total water can be used by human beings (Anon. 2006).
As water was available in plenty, it was considered as a free resource since generations. However, with growing demand for water and depletion of the available water, assured supply of good quality water is becoming a growing concern. As the water resources are not evenly distributed, across different continents, some countries have surplus water while many other countries are facing scarcity of water. Likewise, there is skewed growth of population in different continents, resulting in a wide mis-match between the existing population and water availability. Among various continents, Asia has 36% of the available fresh water reserves, with over 60% of the world population where water is a scarce commodity.
In fact compared to Asia, Africa is in a better situation, where 13% of the population has access to 11% of the fresh water reserves. Australia and Oceana have plenty of water with 1% population owning 5% of the fresh water reserves, followed by North and Central America, with 8% population and 15% water reserves and South Am
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