Gujarat is a waterstressed state going by the definition of such areas as those having water availability below 1700 cum/ca/annum (cubic meter per capita per year). According to Priyadarshi Shukla, member of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and IIM-A faculty, the Sabarmati river basin has an annual per capita water availability of 360 cum/ca/annum. In the Mahi and Tapi basins, it is below 1000 cum/ca/annum. With the population of Gujarat expected to touch eight crore by 2050, water availability in most parts of the state would be below 1000 cum/ca/annum, which would make it a water-scarce state. "The availability of water resources in various river basins of the country is highly uneven even today. The Brahmaputra and Ganga basins have 32 per cent and 28 per cent share. In contrast, the combined share of water flow of all rivers passing through Gujarat is five per cent and Sabarmati basin's share is merely 0.2 per cent. In the case of fresh water, the dice of nature's bounty is not in Gujarat's favour,' says Shukla. In the next few decades, climate change will be the new threat to the already stressed water resources. Scientific assessments show that climate change will adversely impact Gujarat's fresh water resources. The results from simulations by hydrological and high resolution climate models predict that by mid-21st cent u r y c l i - m at e change will reduce water flows of all major river basins of Gujarat. The worst affected would be Sabarmati river basin where the annual surface flow would reduce by 12.3 per cent. Flows in Mahi river basin would reduce by 8.1 per cent. The mighty Narmada river which feeds the Sardar Sarovar project, considered the