According to the Composite Water Resources Management report, India is facing its worst ever water crisis, affecting more than 600 million people. 70% of India’s water is believed to be polluted. Indian Capital New Delhi and other 20 big cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Amritsar are expected to run out of ground water by the year 2020 affecting more than 100 million people. The CWMI report states that if India does not immediate steps to handle water crisis at this rate by the year 2030 more than 500 million people in India will have no access to clean drinking water.
Crisis in Major Cities: According to the UN report it is expected that by 2050 India will overtake China’s population and the growing population will outgrow the available water supply. By the year 2030 demand of water will double the available supply thus putting millions of lives in danger. 
Contaminated water: In the past years 200,000 people in India have died due to inaccessibility to clean drinking water. India currently ranks at 120 out of 122 countries on the water quality index. India is far behind neighbours China and Bangladesh as just 50% of the rural population in India has access to clean drinking water.
Poor monsoon seasons: Due to consecutive poor monsoon seasons, water is becoming inaccessible to low-income families and people in poverty. Due to lack facilities like water tankers and rainwater harvesting system in place, low income families rely on groundwater for their needs. People below poverty are hit the hardest as they cannot afford the bottled water.
Effect on economic growth: According to NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), India could lose 6% of its GDP growth due to the growing water crisis by the year 2050. Major Indian states contributing to the economy like Rajasthan, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh have received scores below 50 on the Composite Water Management Index report. Due to lack of clean water sources available government spending on compensation to affected communities and will increase government spending on desalination plants.
The following video throws light on India’s water crisis and how it is a warning to rest of the world .
Group A- Simarbir Singh Dhaliwal
