Reclaiming water bodies

Govt agencies need better coordination

The Jal Shakti ministry has done well to put together a comprehensive inventory of the country’s water resources by conducting the first ever census of water bodies. It would serve as a valuable guide for better management of this critical, albeit renewable, natural resource. As pointed out by the ministry, this data has been compiled at a time when the country is gradually progressing towards water scarcity due to increasing population pressure and urbanisation — India supports 18 per cent of the world’s population with only 4 per cent of global water resources — but this contention is not incontrovertible.