Availability and Sectoral Demand for Water in Tamil Nadu

The demand of water is also increasing day by day not only for Agriculture, but also for household and Industrial purposes. The perennial rivers are becoming dry and ground water table is depleting in most of the areas. Country is facing floods and drought in the same year in many states. This is because, no concrete action was taken to conserve, harvest and manage the rain water efficiently. Due to the nature of the terrain and distribution of rainfall, it is estimated that only 69 million hectare meter run-off can be harnessed for irrigation 175 million hectare meter water enters soil, of which 130 million hectare meter is retained in the soil and 45 million hectare meter is added to ground water every year. The demand for water, currently estimated at 75 million hectare meters, is expected to rise to 105 million hectare meters in another 25 years. Agriculture and allied activities make the single largest contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), accounting for almost 27 percent of the total. Agriculture growth has direct impact on poverty eradication and also an important factor in contain inflation, raising agricultural wages and for employment generation. Water resource contributes to agricultural production in three ways; It raises productivity by inducing the use on complementary inputs, like fertilizer, HYV of seeds, etc., increases the cropped area by making double or multiple cropping possible, and bring out a change in cropping pattern.