UPSC Mains 2015 GS Paper 1 Q16: model answer
India is well endowed with fresh water resources. Critically examine why it still suffers from water scarcity.
What the question wants
Critically examine why India faces water scarcity despite large freshwater resources.
How to structure it
Critically examine: accept the premise partly, explain the paradox.
- Endowment
- Reasons for scarcity
- Is it really abundant?
- Solutions
How to think it through
India gets about 4,000 billion cubic metres of rain and snow a year, but much of it arrives in four months and runs to the sea. It's like being paid a year's salary in one week and having no wallet. The problem is timing, storage, distribution and waste.
Model answer
India receives about 4,000 billion cubic metres (BCM) of precipitation a year and has rivers like the Ganga and Brahmaputra. Yet NITI Aayog's Composite Water Management Index (2018) warned that 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress.
Why scarcity persists
- Temporal concentration: about 75% of rain falls in the monsoon months.
- Spatial unevenness: the Brahmaputra basin is water-rich; Rajasthan and the peninsular interior are dry.
- Low storage: India stores a small fraction of its runoff compared with major river basins elsewhere.
- Over-use of groundwater: India extracts more groundwater than any other country; many blocks are over-exploited.
- Inefficient irrigation: flood irrigation; water-intensive crops (rice, sugarcane) in dry regions, encouraged by free power.
- Pollution: sewage and industrial waste make rivers unusable.
- Urban losses: leaking pipes and poor management.
Is it really abundant?
Per capita availability has fallen to about 1,500 cubic metres, close to the stress threshold of 1,700, because of population growth.
Solutions
- Rainwater harvesting, Jal Shakti Abhiyan, Atal Bhujal Yojana.
- Micro-irrigation and crop diversification.
- Wastewater reuse and rational water and power pricing for farms.
- Cleaning rivers (Namami Gange) and protecting wetlands that store water.
- Restoring traditional tanks and stepwells, as Telangana's Mission Kakatiya did.
India's water problem is more one of management than of supply: of storing the monsoon, using it efficiently and sharing it fairly.
Draw: Bar showing monthly rainfall with a tall monsoon block and tiny dry-season bars.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
4,000 BCM, CWMI 2018, per capita 1,500 m³, Falkenmark threshold, Atal Bhujal, Per Drop More Crop.
Where most answers lose marks
- Accepting 'well endowed' without question. Per capita data show stress.
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19 Oct 2026Learn the concept
Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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