This is the best way one can tackle water crisis,  even Government has realised the importance of water harvesting and has issued directives to all the government departments to install rain water harvesting systems in its buildings, in this way they should show the way to people in this regard, and instill water harvesting mechanisms in every department of its and the local bodies and public sector undertakings, and this move from everyone will take care of water shortage in many of the states.
So water harvesting is the way to go...

There was a news that water will be made available by distillation sea water,but it will be for sea coasts area's.even then on the country basis it will reduce the total water requirement.

For interior places if we follow the message given by govt for recharging underground water resources then we will be successful in solving the water problem 100%.

Water for Industrial use is one of the major source of water consumption. There are some industried like Rayon Industries, Carbon Black, textile, chemical plants, which are high consumers of water.

On the lines of "Energy Audits" which are made mandatory for all Industries to be carried out on yearly basis, Government should make mandatory for all the Industries, to have annual "Water Audit".

These audits (on the line of Energy Audit) will analyze the water consumption under differeb

Admit that water is a big problem so are many others which cannot be tackled in isolation. The reason for shortages, anomalies and lags in the economy is due to the short sighted approach to nation building and creating a coscious culture among citizen. To achieve a less problamatic society where manythings including water is not going to be a problem is to approach each of our problem scientificaly rather than socialistic experimentations. Otherwise ours will be a nation where when something goes right many things will be going wrong unlike other more conscious nations.

With economy growing the problem like water shortage could prove devastating.We got to deal with this problem through education.Water is a resource that everybody uses and hence everybody has to take accounatabilty to save and preserve water.This calls for an aggressive prompotion by govt. to educate how water can be conserved and used judicially.There has to b camps and debates on national levels where even the uneducated should be involved so that the info. percolates till the bottom of the  social pyramid model.Such a model can be made for cities like mumbai and other big cities.On their success models then the same can be scaled to other places.I am sure this way we can truely save the earth from water shortage for yrs.

Besides whatever has been said and stated by many already, what needs to be done first is - respect the value of water.   When I say value, I do not mean the price you pay for consumption of water.   I mean the value it has in our life.    Save water.   Do not waste it.    In houses we find wasting water is a way of life.   In the name of hygeine, decor, affordability or for any reason, we do not mind wasting water.    Use as much as you should, but do not waste.    This itself would greatly contribute to retention of the ground water, and added to this if we pursue habits of rain water harvesting etc, and save water from getting polluted unnecessarily whether in the rivers, or ponds or pools, we can expect to live without the fear that looms large in our minds today.

India is a vast Geography and sees various levels of atmospheric change across states. Every year if one part sees flood, somewhere else we would be witnessing drought like situation.

As we have a network of Raods, Rail, Air to connect people across states, why not have a network of canals to connect rivers across states.

As we pay toll to use certain roads, let the industries with heavy usage pay the toll, the revenue from which can be used for further development.

Restrict usage of underground water.

US satellites unlock secret to north India's vanishing water:-

Unsustainable use of water in India's northern states threatens farm output and can fuel the spectre of a major water crisis, distressing 114 million people living there, warns a new study.

Human activity like irrigation has pushed groundwater levels in India's north down by as much as one foot per year over the past seven years, says the study by scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

More than 26 cubic miles of groundwater vanished from aquifers in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and the National Capital Territory of Delhi since 2002, says the study that has used NASA's satellite data.

'The amount lost is double the capacity of India's largest surface-water reservoir, the Upper Wainganga, and almost three times the capacity of Lake Mead in Nevada, the largest reservoir in the US,' says the study, which has been published in the Nature magazine.

The team of hydrologists found that the underground water supply was being pumped and consumed by human activities such as irrigating cropland and was draining the aquifers faster than natural processes can replenish them.

The finding is based on data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) twin satellites, which sense changes in the distribution of Earth's mass and gravity field distribution, including water masses stored above or below the surface.

'As the twin satellites orbit 300 miles above Earth's surface, their positions change relative to each other in response to variations in the pull of gravity,

Each individual you, me and us can atleast start with small individual steps to save water........a few measures perhaps........

Shorten your shower by a minute or two.

Turn the faucets off tightly after each use.

Cut down on the utensils to wash. Keep one glass for your drinking water each day or refill a water bottle. This will cut down on the number of glasses to wash.

Turn off the water while brushing your teeth and washing your hair and while u shave.

When washing dishes by hand, fill the sink basin or a large container and rinse when all of the dishes have been soaped and scrubbed.

Keep a bucket in the shower to catch water as it warms up or runs. Use this water to flush toilets or water plants.

Wash your fruits and vegetables in a pan of water instead of running water from the tap and then reuse it to water houseplants.

It takes 10 litres of water to make a sheet of paper. So before u throw it in the dustbin rethink.

We have heard of these ways so many times but lets all reliigiously practise it too..Simple ordinary steps these are but every drop saved now counts.

Apart from the home front I support River Linking.

India is wealthy as far as its water bodies go. However, nearly half of this water flows through the rivers or percolates into the ground and gets evaporated. Some rivers are over flowing throughout the year with no water harvesting in place while some others run dry in crucial seasons. River linking is an arrangement which connects water surplus rivers to the water starved ones. The Beas-Sutlej being an example. This arrangement if done positively rather than politically is the answer to India's future water needs. Yes, its complicated, high on the cost and criticized but if closely studied is an answer too..

Till these steps are effective and put into place lets start with each home..

With rapid urbanization, town/city planning has gone the way of the Dodo. There was a time when the constructions would have adhered to laws and norm better. Now, with large money chasing ever shrinking piece of land, the incentive to have a thoughtful planning for sustainable development is almost impossible.

Water harvesting requires a specific area of open land to be available. These days, only open land that can be seen are the roads. The point where roads end is the point where the building starts. Storm drainage is something exhalted intelligentsia only talk about snobbishly over tea with a couple of 'tsk-tsk' added for effect.

In case every residential or commercial area has open areas for park and greenery, the water table will get repleneshed naturally, besides improving the quality of air and life in general.

Hence, water crisis is not a result of the economic boom, rather is an indication of the lack of strength and conviction on the part of city/town/etc administration, which has been in evidence since ages.

River Garlanding, which forms a network of rivers, so that, excess water (flooding)as well as deficit water (drying up) situaions of all rivers get compensated, will be the solution to this problem.

One Civil Engineer from Mumbai (who is 95 year old now and still fighting to get the project started) had carried out extensive survey of the rivers, geography of the country has submitted a detailed proposal for this to Govt., many years back. After consistent ignoring, President Abdul Kalam had shown interest and called this Engineer for discussions. But nothing happened further.

The salient features of this project are as follows :

1. No water discharge in sea. Water will keep circulating in closed network.

2. Network is formed with minium joining points of rivers.

3. Garlanding will not affect any dam water level as well as power generating capaciy of any Hydro Electric Project.

4. No floods in rivers.

5. No reduction in irrigated land of any state. Only excess water will be diveted to river, which is below level