NEW DELHI, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- A latest report by India's Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has revealed that almost 22 percent of the assessed units of underground water in the country had either "dried up," or was in the "critical" and "over-exploited" categories.
A major part, nearly 89 percent, of available water resources was consumed by agriculture and farming activities, found the report.
According to it, the highest number of 541 "water stressed blocks" were in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, followed by 218 in western state of Rajasthan, 139 in northern state of Uttar Pradesh, 137 in southern state of Telangana, 111 in northern state of Punjab, and 81 in northern state of Haryana.
The report showed that the "over-exploited" areas were mostly concentrated in areas of northern state of Haryana and Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, mainly due to the indiscriminate withdrawal of underground water leading to exploitation.
The "over-exploited" areas in western states of Rajasthan and Gujarat was because of "arid climate" and limited recharge of ground water. In case of southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu the "over exploited" areas where due to inherent properties of crystalline aquifers and low availability of underground water, found the report.
Commenting on the CGWB report findings, the country's Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Sekhawat said that there was an urgent need to focus on efficient use of water resources, especially by farmers in the agriculture sector, reported the English daily The Times of India.
"We really need to help farmers and create awareness among them so that they can move towards efficient measures of water use such as drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation," he said, adding "Ten percent of water saving in the agricultural sector would make it available for all users for the next 50 years."
