'Indian rivers most vulnerable to climate change'

New Delhi, Mar 22: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India was most vulnerable to climate change as it can have devastating effects on the country's glaciers, rainfall patterns and rivers. Inaugurating the World Water Day function here this morning the Prime Minister said rivers in the country depended on the monsoon systems and flow of Himalayan rivers were all dependent on current climatic patterns.

There was mounting evidence about increased global air and ocean temperatures causing widespread melting of snow and ice and rise in sea levels. All these fears may indeed happen if the present generation did not act with foresight and wisdom and India was most vulnerable to these climatic changes, he cautioned.

He said the northern rivers of the country which were fed by glacier melt and could first witness floods followed by shortages in freshwater flows. There could be heat waves and more extreme events such as floods and loss of crop productivity, he said.

Stating that it should be the collective resolve to face the challenge by using water wisely, Dr Singh said human societies could not allow water conflicts be it with the country or between two countries to decend into a chaos.

He said humanity has the wisdom to avert conflict and the challenge before us was to tap the wisdom and find collective solutions to benefit all. Adopting Gandhian principle of utilisation of water according to one's need, and not one' s greed, one can avert the conflict and wastage, he suggested.

On the issue of sharing of river waters the Prime Minister said the national strategies must be based on optimising the use of this increasingly scarle and competed resource. We must use less water in agriculture, in industry, in our cities. But the challenge is to use less, even as we provide access to clean water to all and water for all uses, he remarked.

He said water was most critical constraint for agricultural development and the country must learn to augment water supply through conservation and reuse. We have to promote the recharge of wells and tanks and harness rainwater better. There is an urgent need to rationalise water use in agriculture by getting 'more crop per drop' of water.

This requires economic pricing of water and community based cooperation in water use. This requires a more efficient cropping pattern. This requires greater attention to dryland crops.

We must understand better what our changing food habits will mean for water management in the coming years.

UNI