Water Supply in India Essay Example for Free

Water Supply in India Essay India has a land size of 3. 29 million square kilometers with a diverse population which has narrowly exceeded the one billion mark. The demand for water has continued to rise fast due to urbanization where a significant percentage of the population lives in the urban areas. In addition, the increase in demand of water is further attributed to industrial growth and increase in agricultural consumption (Omvedt, 1993). Access to clean drinking water is a basic necessity of life. However supply of clean water in India remains to be insufficient despite the measures that have been taken by major institutions in India in curbing the problem. Most of the cities in India, though densely populated, do not have continuous access to clean water supply on a daily basis. Water is distributed for only a few hours per day. According to a study that was carried out in 2007 by the Asian Development Bank, twenty out of the thirty five states in India had an average duration of 4. 3 hours per day of clean water supply (Deorah, 2006). This proves the unreliability in management and distribution of piped water in major cities as well as in small towns in India. Although piped water is not well developed in rural areas, the same problem still thrives, sometimes hand pumps remaining out of order for a long time. It is quite embarrassing to find that even with the great advancements in technology in the 21st century, there are still some people in certain areas of the world who face the danger of ill health due to lack of enough and quality water. Sustainable management of water resources is quickly turning out to be a necessity with a looming crisis that seems to be a threat to the livelihood and security of the general public in the coming years (Siegfried, Brown, Heikkila, Lall, 2008). Basing on this background, it is therefore the objective of this paper to center on the problem of water supply in India. 2. 0 Literature review A number of authors and scholars have carried out studies on the issue of water supply in India. The main focal point of these researchers was on the causes and possible solutions to the problem of water supply in India. According to Deorah, the major cause of low amounts of water supply whose quality is also poor is majorly as a result of mismanagement of water as a resource (2006). According to studies done by Mustafa it is revealed that the story of water in most parts of the Indus Basin which is largely in India, is related to the political landscape of the area (2007). Some of the authors highlight the possibility of an imminent danger facing India due to the conflicting figures in relation to the rising demand for water against the decline in supply of the same (Homer-Dixon, 2000). In a bid to solve this problem, Uitto and Jansky proposes that the public be incorporated in the process of efficient management of water sources (2005). In addition, it has been sugested by some scholarly material that the implentation of â€Å"the water conservation campaign awareness† is a great step in finding a lasting solution (Birkenholtz, 2009). Into the same bargain are authors Siegfried, Brown, Heikkila and Lall who recommend the idea of recycling waste water as well as harvesting of rainwater as part of the solution (2008). On the same note, Omdvet in his book â€Å"Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India â€Å" gives the importance of preserving water catchment areas such as the Himalayas Mountains which plays a pivotal role in provision of water in the country (1993).