Water Resources Management in India–Challenges and the Way Forward

Management of water resources in India has been a challenge whose magnitude has risen manifolds over the past 50 years due to a variety of reasons, notably the rising demands and growing environmental degradation. Broadly, most of the challenges in water management in India can be categorized in the following groups: (a) water availability, variability and increasing withdrawals, (b) environment and quality, (c) project construction, (d) water sharing disputes, (e) water governance and institutions, and (f) challenges induced due to climate and land-use cover changes. Here we discuss each of these challenges in detail. It is suggested that conservation of water and management of variabilities should be a cornerstone of water resources management in India. This note also suggests remedies to address the challenges and covers new initiatives by the Government of India (GoI).