Water is our planet's most precious resource and also its most pressing problem today. Its availability worldwide is assuming the proportions of a critical survival issue. United Nations had declared the year 2003 as the "International Year of Freshwater" to galvanise action on critical water problems. More than one billion people all over the globe lack access to a steady supply of clean water. In India, safe drinking water is not within easy reach of around 200 million people. Thousands of households in rural and urban areas are resigned to water stress. Farmers are driven to extreme desperation. At the core of the unfortunate spate of suicides, among other things, is their desperate search for irrigation water.