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Need to improve water management -- Minister
Ashok B Sharma
New Delhi, Jan 31: Union minister for water resources CP Thakur said here on Monday that the country's need for water was bound to grow as population was estimated to peak at 1.4 billion by the year 2025. This, he said, would mean that the demand for foodgrain would be at 350 million tonnes from the present level of 200 million tonnes, warranting optimal management of our water resources.Thakur, who was inaugurating the 8th ICID International Workshop on Drainage, said that the the workshop was very topical and timely especially in the Indian context where the arable land resource has almost peaked and the development of water resources would be practically complete in a limited time span. Besides additional requirement of water for irrigation, there would be increasing demand for water for other purposes like drinking, domestic and industrial use, navigation and environmental purposes, he pointed out. He said that while the demand for water increases, the cost of development of new sources of water will be much higher than that of the sources already tapped. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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