New Delhi, June 4 -- The warnings are dire. India is running dry. There is a looming water crisis-a threat to India's future. Alarm bells around a water shortage have become increasingly shrill and loud over the past few decades. Experts in India have long lamented the poor state of water storage capacities in the country, the extent of pollution in our rivers, the annual cycles of drought and floods, the over-exploitation of ground water and the provision of water as a free good-often exacerbated by free electricity for agricultural groundwater-pumps given to farmers as an election sop.

India provides drinking water access to nearly 95% of its population, albeit at a fairly basic level. The World Bank's broadened definition of 'access' ...