The new web platform offers a comprehensive, publicly available online tool to evaluate India’s water risks. The tool is a result of collaboration with organizations including BASF, Nestlé, PepsiCo, World Resources Institute and others. The tool can help companies, government agencies and other water users identify their most pressing challenges and carefully target water-risk management efforts.
The tool illustrates the depth and breadth of India’s water-related challenges. With 54 percent of India’s total area facing high to extremely high stress, almost 600 million people are at higher risk of surface-water supply disruptions.
The extremely high stress area in Northwest India – the states of Punjab and Haryana alone produce 50 percent of the national government’s rice supply and 85 percent of its wheat stocks. Both crops are highly water intensive.
The IWT 2.0 measures water quality with an Indian Government standard called Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) limits. Surface and groundwater are both below par in many areas.
Tools such as the India Water Tool may be only a first step in a long process of risk reduction and mitigation, but they are an essential one. Only with ongoing efforts to improve data transparency and accessibility may India advance toward a sustainable water future.
http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/02/3-maps-explainindia%
E2%80%99s-growing-water-risks
