Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) After power shortage, water scarcity will be the next growth barrier in India. Inadequate availability of water is becoming an area of concern for industries, especially for thermal power, chemicals, textiles and cement plants, and would affect their businesses massively in coming years, says a survey.

In the survey by industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), member industries said over the past few years, access to water had become difficult and the problem was likely to increase in the coming years.

Sixty percent of the respondents said non-availability of required water was impacting their business today. This is expected to rise to 87 percent after 10 years.

“The water demand for the industrial sector is on a rise and will account for 8.5 and 10.1 per cent of the total freshwater abstraction in 2025 and 2050 respectively,” the survey conducted across sectors found.

“This is a four percent rise from the current level of six percent of the total freshwater abstraction by the industries in 2010,” said the survey titled “Water use in Indian industry”.

Apart from inadequate availability of water, poor water quality would also adversely impact business, the survey said.

“While inadequate availability is the major risk facing the industries (37 percent), others agree that poor water quality is another major risk in the running of business (14 percent). Sectors like pharmaceutical, power, food processing and agriculture feel the brunt of poor water quality.”

The sectors surveyed said there should be a shared responsibility across industries to join hands with communities and governments to work on programmes for water conservation, recharge and wastewater treatment.

FICCI has constituted a water mission to promote and provide thought leadership in the area of water efficiency.