'Less storage capacity hurdle to water management in India'

India's water management efforts have not been meaningful due to lack of storage capacity as rainfall in the country is restricted to barely 100 days in a year, Central Water Commission chairman A.B. Pandya said Thursday.

India's per capita water storage amongst BRICS nations is a mere 210 cubic metres compared to 753 of South Africa, 1,111 of China, 3,145 of Brazil and a whopping 6,103 of Russia.

Speaking at a seminar organised by FICCI on 'Water Risk and Water Stewardship', Pandya put the challenge facing the country in perspective by pointing out that India has 2.4 percent of world's land area, four percent of its renewable water resources, 18 percent of the population, but the primary source of water, surface rainfall, is limited to about 100 days in a year, that too in spells and uneven distributed.

The enormity of the challenge is also evidenced by the per capita water availability (cubic metre per capita per year) which stood at 1,545 in 2011 and is expected to decrease to 1,340 in 2025 and 1,140 in 2050, perilously close to the water scarcity line of 1,000.