New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) The situation of groundwater is alarming and there is an urgent need for behavioral change, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a function - 'Groundwater – Making the invisible visible'- organized by Dhanuka Group in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry.

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Batting for behavioural change, Patel said there is a need to save every drop of water and the "change should come from us".

"The situation of groundwater is very alarming in India and we have a commitment towards our future generation to conserve water," he said.

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Speaking on this occasion, Ramesh Chand, Member, Niti Aayog expressed serious concern about "our cropping pattern".

"India accounts for 18 per cent of the world's population, 2.4 per cent of land and 4 per cent of water. If we look at these ratios, we should have been facing scarcity of land more than water. But it is not so.

"When it comes to land, there is more concern of quality than quantity whereas when it comes to water we have issues with both quality and quantity. The reason behind the same is that we are not making water available in accordance with demand," he said.

"The demand for water is rising at a faster rate, the availability of water is also increasing but still, there is a gap between the rate at which demand of water is growing and the rate at which the availability is improving.

Chand said this gap has its own reasons, consequences, and explanations.

"The biggest explanation is that in the last 30 years, our cropping pattern, our technique of crop cultivation, and our preferences have turned water-intensive," he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)