Economic Status and Crisis of Water Management in Kerala: An Analysis

Among the natural resources, water is treated as the elixir of life. Water is the life blood of the environment in which man lives and interacts with other living beings. Water till recently considered as a free gift of nature has now become a critical scarce resource. The combination of population growth, climate change, and misuse of water and pollution of available water in the 21st century is leading to a veritable water crisis. Water as a scarce natural resource which has to be planned, developed and conserved and managed on environmentally sound basis keeping in view the socioeconomic conditions. With an increase in population coupled with urbanization, Industrialization and increase in living standards the demand for water for various uses is continuously increasing in each decade.