Expert says water scarcity looms large

Tirupati, Feb 19 (UNI) Council of Power Utilities President C V J Varma today painted a bleak picture of the water scenario saying by 2050, as many as 66 countries or about two thirds of the world population will face moderate to severe water scarcity.

Delivering a lecture on 'Water resources development for food and energy security' conducted by the Institution of Engineers (India) here, Mr Varma said about 25 per cent of the population lacked clean drinking water supply due to which one child died every eight seconds from water-borne diseases.

By 2050, the demand will exceed utilisable water resources. In this context, recharging ground water by harnessing surplus monsoon run-off assumed importance.

The country must also evolve appropriate plans to make available sufficient water for irrigating 150-160 millioon hectares neccessary for hiking food grain production by 2050.

Developing countries should be encouraged to develop water resources for development programmes. For instance, In India almost 40 per cent of the total electricity generated went for pumping ground water for irrigation.

This means the entire hydropower and 20 per cent of thermal generation went towards pumping ground water thereby depleting the available resource.

If India developed and provided surface water for irrigation, the benefits would be manifold.

If the country avoided ground water depletion, the bonus would be the hydel resources could be used more efficiently thereby avoiding green house gases generated by thermal power plants.

Power, food and energy security would be the major concerns for any country which believes in maintaining its sovereignty.

Ultimately the balancing act has to be done by the country's government, he said.

UNI