India will achieve the target of safe drinking water for all by 2024, says Jalshakti minister Shekhawat

PUNE: Minister of Jalshakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said that India will achieve the target of providing safe drinking water to everyone by 2024. He was speaking at the inauguration of the the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Water Management in Pune on Wednesday.
"India extracts half of the total ground water used by the entire world. Our ground water usage is more than the combined ground water usage of USA and China. The study of India's groundwater aquifers will be completed in next two years," said Shekhawat.

He emphasised the need for the states to work towards seamless data transfer on water. "Rivers and water is a state subject. However, 92% of the river basins are inter state and hence there is need for seamless data transfer," said the minister.

Speaking about demand management, Shekhawat said that 89% of the water available in the country is used by agriculture sector. "India receives 1068 millimetre rainfall in a year. Saving about 5% to 10% of the water used by agriculture can help to meet drinking water requirement of the country for next 50 years," he said.

The minster highlighted that our planners did the mistake of considering rivers as sources of water. "However, rivers are just carriers of water. They are contracting because our springs and rivulets are dying. We have to rejuvenate the springs and rivulets, which are the main sources of water," said Shekhawat.