India Water Tool 3.0 Gears Up To Manage Water Crisis To Avoid The Country’s 6 Percent Loss In GDP By 2030

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched the third version of the India Water Tool (IWT), helping businesses and other water users understand their water risks and plan solutions for water management across the country. The goal of IWT 3.0 is to help key stakeholders identify water risks and plan for better water management in India. On 20th of February, 2019 the Aditya Birla Group in partnership with ITC and Jain Irrigation drove the initiative for the 3rd year.

Thomas Varghese, Business Head – textiles, Acrylic Fibre and Overseas Spinning, Aditya Birla Group, says “India Water Tool symbolizes collaboration and leadership on the part of all companies and partners that have come together to contribute to water sustainability in India. Our intent is to make the application relevant for use by all stakeholders at large. Only when we are able to give access to water-data to all water users, planning agencies, communities, and investors, we can expect coordinated action and a movement for improved management. I see IWT3.0 a step in this direction”.

According to the 2018 report by NITI Aayog, India is facing the worst water crisis in history which can lead to an eventual 6% loss in the country’s GDP by 2030.

“Today, nearly 54% of India is water stressed. This creates a huge vulnerability in Indian agriculture and for Indian farmers. More so, because we will have to provide food security to the 1.5 billion that will inhabit India by 2030. We all know that with 17% of the world’s population, India has only 4% of the world’s water resources. Therefore, it is not only important to conserve, reuse and treat water responsibly but also to replenish water resources now on an unprecedented scale. That is why ITC’s water initiative has already provided soil and moisture conservation to nearly 1 million acres, which also contributes to ITC being water positive for more than 16 years,” said S Sivakumar, Group Head – Agri & IT Businesses.

“Businesses must act responsibly with their water use and this tool is a good first step for them to understand where to focus their action, and how to go about planning management actions,” added K C Naik, Chairman, Central Ground Water Board.

The India Water Tool has been developed by 20 companies and three knowledge partners over its three successive versions. The effort was coordinated by WBCSD in India.

The tool is a unique example of collaboration between actors across sectors to create a sustainable future through responsible water management.

This third version of the tool includes:

• Over 20 datasets from key Indian government authorities and other organisations
• A dataset on real-time satellite capture of surface water availability from NASA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
• Water stress models developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Columbia Water Center (CWC).