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Water scarcity is possibly to pose the greatest challenge on account of its increased demand coupled with shrinking supplies due to over utilization and pollution. The per capita availability of water is dwindling day by day due to increase in population. The available water resources are also getting polluted with industrial, agricultural and domestic effluents, and this, in turn, is further limiting the availability of usable water resources.
Some states utilize large proportion of their ground water potential which has resulted in ground water depletion in these states. Over withdrawals in some states like Rajasthan, and Maharashtra has increased fluoride concentration in ground-water, and this practice has led to increase in concentration of arsenic in parts of West Bengal and Bihar. Water, gets polluted by foreign matters such as micro-organisms, chemicals, industrial, domestic and other wastes. When toxic substances enter lakes, steams, rivers, ocean and other water bodies, they get dissolved or lie suspended in water. This results in pollution of water whereby quality of water deteriorates affecting aquatic systems. Sometimes, these pollutants also seep down and pollute groundwater. The Ganga and the Yamuna are the two highly polluted rivers in the country,