A review of India’s water policy and implementation toward a sustainable future

Abstract

India is one of the most significant economies globally, and the sustainable use of this priceless resource depends considerably on its water supplies. Moreover, a rural and monsoon-dependent nation faces water scarcity challenges, fueling potential conflicts among sectors and regions while intensifying challenges to food security and livelihoods. This paper conducts a chronological review of India’s evolving water supply policies, assessing their impact, identifying gaps in policy implementation, and striving to provide insights for the country’s future development of equal and sustainable access to water. In this context, integrating artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in smart water management systems, presents promising implications for improving water supply efficiency and optimizing service delivery pro-cesses, proving indispensable in addressing water-related challenges, particularly in regions like India. It could detect and mitigate water losses within distribution systems, providing practical water purification, distribution, and conservation solutions. This review paper also dis-covered that the Practical Integrated Water Resource Management approach emphasizes decentralized management of water resources and advocates for more efficient, context-specific, and locally tailored solutions for assessing the water resource system for implementing water policy. This approach further leads to minimizing the water scarcity problem in a particular area or region. © 2025 The Authors.