Question

What is India's rank in the world with respect to the amount of water available per person per year?
A) 130
B) 133
C) 136
D) 139

Answer 1

Hint: India has 18% of the world's population and 4% of the world's pure water, with 80% of it being used for agriculture. Every year, India receives an average of 4,000 billion cubic metres of rainfall. However, only 48% of it is utilised in surface and groundwater bodies in India.

Complete answer:
India is ranked 133rd in the world for the amount of water available per person per year. India is the world's second-largest water consumer. Its water usage accounts for 20.1 percent of global water consumption. India's per capita water supply is 297.7 cubic metres.

India is a water-rich country, accounting for 4% of global water resources (India-WRIS wiki 2015). The rivers have always been at the heart of India's development and culture. Twelve rivers are classed as large rivers, with a catchment area of 253 mha, while 46 rivers are classified as medium rivers, with a catchment area of 24.6 mha.

Many river systems and their tributaries are perpetual, while others are only seasonal. The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna system is India's largest river system, accounting for 43 percent of the country's total catchment area. Indus, Sabarmati, Mahi, Narmada, Tapi, Brahmani, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Pennar, and Cauvery are the other main river systems. Apart from that, there are several more medium river systems, the greatest of which is the Subarnarekha (with a catchment area of 1.9 million hectares) (Dhawan 2017, Central Water Commission 2015).

India's rank is 133rd in the world with respect to the amount of water available per person per year. Thus the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note: Other inland water resources, in addition to rivers and canals, include reservoirs, tanks and ponds, beels, oxbow lakes, derelict water, and brackish water, which encompass over 7 million hectares. They are dispersed across the country, with Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and West Bengal accounting for more than half of the inland water resources.