India would have a water deficit of 50 per cent by 2030: ADB

Many countries in Asia also facing worsening water crisis

GN Bureau / PTI | October 15, 2010




Asian countries, including India, are facing a worsening water crisis that threatens to curtail food production while taking an increasingly heavy toll on the region's economies, the Asian Development Bank said in its latest report.

Among the region’s largest countries, the ADB estimated 'India would have a water deficit of 50 per cent by 2030 while China would have a shortage of 25 per cent.'

“China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal, Uzbekistan and Cambodia are currently feeling the heaviest impacts of the water shortage in terms of food and energy production as well as ecological damage,” the ADB said.

In the report, the ADB faulted weak enforcement of laws for the degradation of Asian water quality, with between 80 and 89 per cent of all untreated wastewater leaching into fresh water in east and south Asia, respectively.

"In short, Asia is witnessing a despoliation of its freshwater resources with disastrous consequences for ecological balance and environmental sustainability," Manila based bank said.

It also highlighted that while irrigated agriculture uses up 80 per cent of the region's fresh water, there have been only very minimal irrigation efficiencies since 1990.

On current trends, this would lead to a 40 per cent gap between water demand and supply in Asia by 2030.

Read the report.

Comments

 

Other News

Diamonds are Forever: A Saturday story

Saturday Stories By Rashmi Bansal HarperCollins, 176 pages, Rs 250 From the bestselling author of ‘Stay Hu

Oracle Adds AI Capabilities to Oracle Analytics Cloud

Oracle has showcased new AI-powered capabilities within Oracle Analytics Cloud. Leveraging the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Generative AI service, the new capabilities assist analytics self-service users to more quickly and efficiently conduct sophisticated analysis and make better business decisions

Domestic airlines show 38.27% growth in passenger numbers

The domestic aviation industry has witnessed a remarkable surge in passenger traffic during the first eight months of 2023. According to the latest data analysis, the number of passengers carried by domestic airlines from January to August 2023 reached an impressive 1190.62 lakhs, marking a substantial inc

MPs bid adieu to historic parliament building, step into new building

A function was organised in the Central Hall of Parliament on Tuesday to commemorate the rich legacy of the Parliament of India as the Members came together to bid adieu to the historical building before stepping into the New Building of Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha sp

Real action, not words alone, needed to achieve UN agenda 2030: civil society

As politicians and policymakers make speeches at the United Nations during a high-level summit next week to assess the lack of progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), people’s leaders representing some of the world’s most marginalised communities have come toge

Fourth GPFI G20 meeting pledges to work for universal financial inclusion

The fourth G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) meeting held in Mumbai during September 14-16 concluded with members agreeing to work towards the vision of universal financial inclusion under the new G20 Financial Inclusion Action Plan. Over the course of three days, discuss

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter