| | AUGUST 20208WHY INDIA NEEDS TO PAY ATTENTION TO ITS WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT NOWVantage PointBy Sanjeev Sirsi, Associate Vice President, GRUNDFOSI ndia accounts for 2.45 percent of land area and 4 percent of water resources of the world but rep-resents 16 percent of the world popu-lation. Total utilizable water resource in the country has been estimated to be about 1123 BCM (690 BCM from surface and 433 BCM from ground), which is just 28 percent of the water derived from precipitation. About 85 percent (688 BCM) of water usage is being diverted for irrigation, which may increase to 1072 BCM by 2050. Major source for irrigation is ground-water. Annual groundwater recharge is about 433 BCM of which 212.5 BCM used for irrigation and 18.1 BCM for domestic and industrial use (CGWB, 2011). By 2025, demand for domestic and industrial water usage may increase to 29.2 BCM. Thus, water availability for irrigation is expected to reduce to 162.3 BCM. With the present pop-
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