1. Global Context: World Water Day 2025

• Theme: Glacier Preservation — highlighting mountain glaciers as vital freshwater sources.
  
  
• Linked Global Efforts:
  
  
  • UN Water Development Report 2025: Focus on “Mountains and Glaciers – Water Towers”.
    
    
  • Importance of cryosphere and sustainable development of upstream/downstream ecosystems.
    
    

🔄 2. Need for an Integrated, Upstream-Downstream Approach

• Human interventions (e.g., damming, diversion, pollution) disrupt natural hydrological cycles.
  
  
• Current Indian challenges:
  
  
  • Fragmented, sectoral water governance.
    
    
  • Lack of coordination between agencies managing rivers, groundwater, and ecosystems.
    
    
  • Jurisdictional overlaps between Centre, States, and Panchayats.
    
    

💡 3. Source to Sea (S2S) Approach: A Sustainable Alternative

• Recognizes interconnection of rivers, lakes, groundwater, estuaries, oceans as one system.
  
  
• Promotes:
  
  
  • Scientific and socio-ecological diagnosis.
    
    
  • Participatory management with local communities.
    
    
  • Nature-based solutions over hard infrastructure.
    
    

🚨 4. Problems in India’s Current Water Management

• Water stress & inequity: 60 crore Indians face high to extreme water stress.
  
  
• Declining groundwater: >60% of irrigation and 85% of drinking water use groundwater.
  
  
• States like Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana use >100% of their groundwater annually.
  
  
• Poor treatment of urban wastewater: ~40% of wastewater untreated.
  
  
• Heavy reliance on private water provisioning due to failed public systems.
  
  

🛠️ 5. Reforms and Policy Shifts Needed

• Previous policy attempts:
  
  
  • National Water Policy 1987, 2002, 2012 – largely ineffective.
    
    
  • 2015 restructuring of Central Water Commission & Central Ground Water Board.
    
    
  • 2019 Jal Shakti Ministry proposed a national framework.
    
    
• However, coordination, legal clarity, and a systems approach are still missing.
  
  

🔑 6. Key Recommendations

• Adopt S2S Framework at national/state levels.
  
  
• Integrate land-ocean-freshwater systems.
  
  
• Shift to ecosystem-based management and nature-positive development.
  
  
• Encourage community engagement and multi-stakeholder governance.
  
  
• Promote scientific tools for risk mapping, adaptive management, and policy diagnostics.
  
  

✅ 7. Takeaway

• India needs a paradigm shift in water governance—from fragmented, supply-centric policies to integrated, ecologically rooted water systems
  
  
• The S2S approach offers a scientific, inclusive, and sustainable pathway to tackle India’s water crisis.

10-Marker (150 words)

Q1. “Water management in India suffers from a fragmented and sectoral approach.” In this context, explain the relevance of the “Source-to-Sea” (S2S) framework for sustainable water governance.