Q.Why the share of agricultural sector in total water used in the country is expected to decline?

Agricultural water use currently dominates India's total water consumption, accounting for the overwhelming majority of withdrawals. However, this share is expected to decline in the coming decades because of two parallel trends: rising demand from other sectors and efficiency improvements in farming itself.

Rapid urbanization and industrial growth are driving up water requirements for domestic and manufacturing purposes. As cities expand and more people move into urban areas, municipal water supply systems need substantially larger volumes. Similarly, industries—particularly water-intensive ones like thermal power generation, textiles, and chemicals—are claiming a growing proportion of available freshwater resources. …

Water has always been the lifeblood of Indian agriculture. For decades, the sector has claimed roughly 80–85% of the country's total water withdrawals, a reflection of our agrarian economy and the sheer scale of irrigation needed to feed over a billion people. Yet this dominance is not permanent. The share—not necessarily the absolute quantity—that agriculture takes from the national water budget is projected to fall steadily in the coming decades.

The reason lies in the explosive growth of two other sectors: industry and domestic use. India's economy is transforming. Manufacturing, power generation, construction, and services are expanding at rates that far outpace agriculture's relatively stable water needs. Thermal power plants alone gulp enormous volumes for cooling. Steel mills, textile factories, chemical plants—each demands water in quantities that were negligible a generation ago. As industrialization deepens, this sector's claim on water resources will multiply.

Simultaneously, urbanization is reshaping the landscape. Cities are swelling. Millions migrate from villages to towns every year, and urban populations require piped water for drinking, sanitation, and daily life at per-capita rates much higher than rural areas. The middle class is growing, bringing with it higher consumption patterns—more bathrooms, washing machines, swimming pools. Domestic water demand, which once seemed modest compared to irrigation, is climbing steeply.

Agriculture's own water use, meanwhile, is not expected to grow at the same pace. The area under cultivation has natural limits. Gains in productivity increasingly come from better seeds, fertilizers, and techniques rather than simply flooding more fields. Efforts to promote drip irrigation, sprinklers, and water-efficient crops are slowly taking hold, even if progress is uneven. The sector's water appetite, while still immense, is stabilizing or growing only modestly. …