Currently, 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress and about 200,000 thousand people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water, said the NITI Aayog report
India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat, the NITI Aayog has said.
It also warned that the crisis was only going to get worse and by 2030, the country's water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual six per cent loss in the country's GDP.
Currently, 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress and about 200,000 thousand people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water, said the NITI Aayog report on Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) released on Thursday which aims to enable effective water management in Indian states in the face of this growing crisis.
The report ranks Gujarat at the top in managing its water resources in the reference year (2016-17) followed by Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The worst states include Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Among North Eastern and Himalayan states, Tripura has been adjudged number one in 2016-17 followed by Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Assam.
In terms of incremental change in the index (over 2015-16 level), Rajasthan holds number one position in general states and Tripura ranks at first position amongst Northeastern and Himalayan states, the report said.
According to the NITI Aayog report, Centre-state and inter-state cooperation were some of the key levers to help address the crisis.
"There is an opportunity to improve Centre-state and inter-state cooperation across the broader water ecosystem. Water management is often currently viewed as a zero-sum game by states due to limited frameworks for inter-state and national management.
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