Water is the most precious gift of the nature. It is essential for sustenance of life, next only to air and is one of most important component which influences economic, agricultural and industrial growth of mankind. It is most widely distributed resource of the Earth and most commonly used commodity. Water is an abundant natural resource as there fourth of the earth `s surface is covered with it but only 2.7% of  the global water available is fresh and of this only 30% is available to meet the water demands of the humans and livestock population both of which are increasing in an alarming manner. On 2% of the world’s land, India supports 16% of  the world’s population with 4% of the world’s  fresh water resources. Not only the per capita land availability but also the per capita water availability is decreasing day by day. Per capita water availability was more than 5300 m³ in 1951, had decreased to1905 m ³  in 1999 and is likely to be less than 1500m³ by 2025 ( Source:IARI). Per capita availability of water less than 1700m³ is considered as ‘stress’ level beyond which water availability gets classified as  scarcity level. Below this level, availability of water is considered a severe constraint on economic   development and environment quality. 

Punjab was fortunate in having five perennial rivers. But after the partition in 1947, Punjab was left with three rivers only. For a small state like Punjab three perennial rivers are a great asset. The Ravi, the Beas and Sutluj are the three perennial rivers. The Ghagger, White Bein, Black Bein and Sakki Kiran Nala are the seasonal rivers of the Punjab. The three major rivers of the State have their origin beyond Punjab  in Himachal Pradesh and Tibet . 

The 94% of the total area sown in Punjab is irrigated area, out of this 61.6% and  38.3% is irrigated by tubewells and canals respectively. Due to more demand of ground water for ever increasing population and irrigation within a short span of time, the exploitation of this precious resource has become non judicious and improper in space and time. The increasing extraction of ground water has resulted in  water levels decline, especially in the fresh ground water areas. In Central Punjab  area, the levels have been falling at 0.2 to 0.3 m/year.

Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in Punjab. However, uncontrolled extraction without commensurate recharge and leaching of pollutants from pesticides and fertilizers into the aquifers has resulted in pollution of groundwater supplies. In addition to leakages from agriculture, over the last decade industrial waste and the municipal solid waste have emerged as the leading causes of the pollution of surface and groundwater. Rapid industrialization and economic growth have led to the intensification of consumerism, which in turn has added to the problem of disposing of colossal amounts of garbage generated each day.

We should  overcome this inevitable catastrophic syndrome by developing a strategy with water security including management, conservation and channelling from places, where it is plentiful to others where it is deficient and scarce. Advances in technology have resulted in enormous increase in ground water extraction in the state thereby disturbing natural water balance. A time has come to change the present concept of 'Water Supply Management' to 'Water Demand Management". An efficient management of water resources should be our main thrust for economic development and environment quality.