Combination of methods of water storage needed to address water crisis: World Bank official

Hyderabad: A combination of different methods of water resource management, including water storage is needed to address the problem of water shortage as currently being witnessed in Bengaluru, a senior World Bank official said on Wednesday.

Water resource management is absolutely critical in times of global warming and climate change, World Bank Executive Director Paramewaran Iyer said. He cited the Centre's 'Jal Shakti Abhiyan' as an example.

He was delivering a lecture titled “Implementing At- scale Transformational Programs” at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here.

Asked about a broader solution to problems like water shortage in Bengaluru now and possibly in other major cities in the country, he said many of the issues of water resource management and water availability are getting exacerbated.

Iyer, who spoke about various aspects of the issue, said a combination of different methods of better water resource management at a city level is important.

Floods, droughts and water pollution is part of the challenge. The challenges are different in urban and rural areas, he said.

Urbanisation and rise in population are part of the problem in cities, he noted.

"So, a combination of different methods of better water resource management at a city level is important. So, you can do water storage. The Prime Minister started a programme called Jal Shakti Abhiyan. Every year, before the monsoon, simple ways in which you can improve and increase water storage, whether it is in rural or urban areas," he said.

While the big dams have their own challenges, water storage which traditionally has been practised, sometimes, gets neglected with urbanisation, encroachments and others, he said.

Observing that better utility management is also needed, he stressed on effective management of 'non-revenue water' (water pumped and then unaccounted for).

In many cities around the world, non-revenue water is anywhere from 30 to 50 per cent, but it is less than 15 per cent in cities like Jerusalem.

He added that the union government, state governments, local bodies, the municipal corporations are all working to address the problem of water supply and there are different ways of dealing with this.

Reacting to a query on GDP, he said everyone acknowledges that India is the fastest growing large economy in the world.

"On GDP, I think there is no question that and everyone acknowledges that we are the fastest growing large economy in the world...you look at IMF projections or World Bank projections, I think they make that pretty clear," he said.

The Indian economy is projected to grow at 7.5 per cent in 2024, the World Bank has said, revising its earlier projections for the same period by 1.2 per cent.

Overall, growth in South Asia is expected to be strong at 6.0 per cent in 2024, driven mainly by robust growth in India and recoveries in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the World Bank said in its latest South Asia Development Update on Tuesday.