Dear John, You have done a wonderful job in describing the present situation with regard to water and land and its various uses. I have been working in these fields for the past 65 years with the government and also with international organisations. I have been giving advice and also getting some of it implemented while in the government at the state level and the national and international level. The worst conditions have been created in the past 20 years by wasting, misusing and polluting water along with land used for various purposes including agriculture, forests urbanisation, industries and infrastructure. The situation is rather bad but still restorable it for the socio-economic benefits of 1.7 billion people expected by 2050. Your conclusion is very correct there is no sense in being panicky. Some of the factors along with the determination can achieve this task even at this late stage. 1. In the past 3 years new thinking has started but the mindset change from the previous century to the new century, has to go much further for the use of new planning, technology and further research work. 2. Till about the 80s of the last century, people of various professionals used to work as a team to get a balanced development, for efficient use of land and water economically. Now the professionals are well focused on their special issues and due to reduced, land and water for various uses have setup unrelated targets for the future. Thus, a balanced development is not taking place. 3. Regulation of land and water which is not happening, has to be introduced after determining the holistic picture for various requirements for the whole nation by 2050. 4. A separate autonomous monitoring arrangement for land and water use on a regular basis with operation, maintenance and management has to be put in place.

Published May 1, 2018 12:42 by G N Kathpalia, Chairman, Alternative Futures