Abstract
India is rich in water resources being endowed with a network of rivers that can meet water requirement of the country. However, with the rapid increase in the population and increasing demands of water for irrigation purposes, the available water resources are getting depleted and the water quality is deteriorating. Humans have strongly impacted the global water cycle including its quantity and quality. In the present work, we have discussed the water availability in major river basins and have described both the quantity and the quality of water resources in India. In water quantity, we compare the relationship between groundwater withdrawal and precipitation that shows the highest groundwater withdrawal in the northern region. We have also discussed the future expectations of water quantity in India. In water quality, we examined the relationship between cereal production and high consumption of nitrate in agricultural water and have discussed the extensively high consumption in the northern state of Punjab in India.
