Question: According to World Resources Institute, what is rank of India in the released Water Stress Index?
(a) 11th
(b) 12th
(c) 13th
(d) 14th
Answer :(c)
Related facts:
- In the recently released Water Stress Index by World Resources Institute, India is ranked 13th among the 17 extremely high water stressed countries.
- Twelve out of the 17 most water-stressed countries are in the Middle East and North Africa.
- Report figures that India has more than three times the population of the other 16 extremely highly stressed countries combined.
- • One-quarter of the world’s population faces “extremely high” levels of baseline water stress, which means that irrigated agriculture, industries, and municipalities withdraw more than 80% of their available supply on average every year.
- Indian city Chennai was recently reported to have “run out of water”.
- The WRI noted that in 2018, NITI Aayog declared that the country is “suffering from the worst water crisis in its history, and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat”.
- In addition to rivers, lakes and streams, India’s groundwater resources are severely overdrawn, largely to provide water for irrigation.
- Groundwater tables in some northern aquifers declined at a rate of more than 8 cm per year between 1990 and 2014.
- Globally, water withdrawals have more than doubled since the 1960s due to growing demand.
- Apart from the 17 countries facing withdrawals of 80% or more from available supply, 44 countries (home to one-third of the world) face “high” levels of stress, where on average more than 40% of available supply is withdrawn every year.