Legend has it that Agasthya, the Indian Vedic guru, drank all the water in the oceans to pursue a demon. Now India needs a lot of water to support it's growing populations and a reverse-Agasthya is needed to convert the ocean waters to better use - desalination ?
India is largely a Vegetarian country living off cereals and vegetables. The water needed to grow these crops is a fraction of the water needed to produce meat. China, on the other hand, has a growing population with accelerating consumption of meat. China in 1985 had a per capita consumption of Beef of 20 Kg. In 2009 this consumption is 50kg ..water needed to support the production of meat is 390 Trillion Liters. A kilogram of Meat needs about 15 000 Liters of water compared to about 1000 Liters for Wheat.
The majority of the 2 Billion humans that will be added to the world by 2025, will be in India and China. Over this time frame, wealth will drive the per capita protein consumption in both India and China putting a disproportionate pressure on water needed to grow this food.
Even the cloth to clothe these populations will demand a lot of water. To make a Kg of cotton cloth, 11 000 Liters of Water are consumed. India and China are among the top 3 producers of cotton :
Millions of Bales of Cotton :
1. China 25,500
2.United States 17,559
3.India 12,500
In fact India and China combined are twice the size of the US cotton Production.
With current drought conditions in China and scarcity of Water in India, a change in the policy of both countries to reuse and recycle water is needed now to endure the coming crises in Water.
The trifecta of food, population and water scarcity is the impending challenge before us.
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