Sustainable development of water resources for poverty reduction

Water is the basic resource for the existence of all forms of life. There is a severe shortage of water in many parts of the world including India. The water resource problems in India is extremely severe such that drought has been a periodic phenomena for and and semi-arid regions affecting about 400 millon people. For water resources development, earlier times the main emphasis was on large-scale. development through dams and canal systems. But many of these projects could not achieve the targeted goals and still water scarcity is a major problem. In this context, there is an urgent need for water conservation and comprehensive water management involving representatives of all those who use water. The present paper discusses on alternative strategies based on integrated water resources managementapproach and tries to identify sequential steps to water resources development resulting in poverty reduction and sustainable development with the help of a case study.