The Minister of State for Jal Shakti & Social Justice Empowerment, Rattan Lal Kataria on Monday, December 9 in Rajya Sabha said that India is facing a severe water crisis.
The minister citing National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog’s report revealed that India is undergoing one of the worst water crisis in history. In a report titled – “Composite Water Management Index” published by NITI Aayog in June 2018, mentioned that more than 600 million people in the country are facing extreme water stress.
The report also placed the country at 120th position amongst 122 countries in the water quality index. It said that 70 per cent of the consumable water in the country is contaminated.
.@NITIAayog Report on Water Crisis: The report mentions that India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index, with nearly 70% of water being contaminated#parliamentsession
Read here: https://t.co/7w7LEgBDM3 pic.twitter.com/Pz3li8IPFE
— PIB India (@PIB_India) December 9, 2019
As per the 5th Minor Irrigation Census (with the reference year 2013-14) conducted by Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (now Ministry of Jal Shakti), there are 20.52 million wells in the country, which includes dug wells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells and deep tube wells.
On the other hand, NITI Aayog figures include only shallow, medium and deep tube wells and do not include dug wells.
