India will become 'water scarce' country in future, says Uma Bharti

New Delhi: Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on Friday signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on water resources development and management with the European Union.

At the World Sustainable Development Summit held in New Delhi, she made remarks that India is close to being categorised as 'water scarce' because of growing exploitation of resources and hoped that the country learns a lot from the MoU in terms of better water management.

She added, 'The holy rivers of India are getting exhausted of their natural ability to sustain themselves due to pollution from various sources'.

"The per capital water availability in India has been on continuous decline which has put our country in water stressed category and is close to being categorised as water scarce. The vagaries of climate change are expected to exacerbate the situation," Ms Bharti said.

" I hope India will learn a lot from this MoU in terms of better water management"

Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission, was present during the occasion. The Union Cabinet had approved the MoU on October 5.

Mr Vella said the agreement may not solve all the issues but it was a step in the right direction and one way of implementing water partnership through exchange of technological, scientific and management experiences.

(With PTI inputs)