Research and Development in the Water Sector in India

Abstract

Research provides basic input for initiating a new dimension to development. In fact, civilizations have grown with the pace of how well water resources were harnessed to meet the demands of water, which depends on the innovations and validations backed by the research. India has the twin challenges of meeting its increasing water needs along with sustaining pace of development. Added to this, the temporal and spatial variability compounded by climate change and competing demands for this limited resource for various uses – drinking water, sanitation, irrigation and industry, to name a few – underlines the importance of research and development to meet these challenges in equitable and judicious manner on sustainable basis. This paper takes stock of the current status of R&D in water sector in India by presenting details of apex research institutions, key funding ministries and schemes to promote research in water sector. A SWOT analysis of R&D in water sector has been presented. It is suggested that there is a need to broad base research activities to all aspects of water management, such as hydrological measurements and assessment, increasing water use efficiency, integrated water resources management, water pollution control and treatment, river rejuvenation, flow forecasting, climate change impact assessment, real-time decision support systems, etc. This paper outlines paradigm shift required in approaches towards research and development in water sector in our country.