In the last decade India has witnessed a drastic shift in the demand and consumption of water. Nearly 25 per cent of the country’s population lives in water-scarce areas; where the per capita availability of water is less than 1,000 cubic metres per year.
Fourteen of the twenty major river basins in India are already water-stressed and it is estimated that they will be moving towards extreme water scarcity by 2050.
Additional stress on scarce water supplies is created by climate variability and change, including irregular and altered rainfall patterns. Though industrial consumption accounts for only about 8% of freshwater consumption in the country, water being a shared resource, can pose substantial risk to companies’ operations and profitability. It is a shared risk between multiple and often competing water users such as households agriculture, industry, and the environment.
WWF-India is engaging businesses from across the sectors and geographies to embark on water stewardship journeys. WWF-India’s water stewardship model promotes a ‘journey’ that helps businesses to minimize their impact on water, engage and collaborate with other consumers to reduce their collective impacts and help in strengthening the way in which river basin resources are managed.