Directions: Choose from the options 1 - 3.

What is the title for the given passage?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

PRECIOUS RESOURCE

While India is aspiring to become a global power, most of its citizens do not even have the basic amenity of adequate water supply. During the Last seven years, nearly 1.5 lakh villages have lost access to water supply. According to the Comptroller and Auditor –General’s report, while 85 percent of rural India is dependent on ground water, the environmental degradation and reduced recharges have made most underground sources ineffectual. Water scarcity ails most Indian states and is a pressing problem facing both the rural and urban areas.
One of the major causes of water shortage has been the diminishing water-table, which has been consistently falling due to indiscriminate water exploitation. In grain-surplus states of  Punjab and Haryana, with over 20-lakh tube wells and pumps, water-tables have gone 1600 feet deeper. The ground water levels plummeting, Punjab, the food bowl of India, can turn into a desert. The Punjab government’s curb on the early sowing of water-intensive rice is appreciable, but it has to be regulated further-more. The state government, instead of following appeasement policies like free electricity to farmers, should find suitable steps to augment water resources. To arrest the water –table, Haryana is planning a joint project with the Centre. In Sirsa district, a pilot project involving recharge and storage tanks has already been initiated

Indeed, water is too precious a resource and India and its states cannot afford to fritter it away. The Central government has been spending crores of rupees on water conservation, yet little attention is being paid to harvesting rainwater, even though it is estimated that if 5 percent of the rainwater is harvested annually, it could produce 900 million liters of water, The Centre’s initiative to make it mandatory for people to recharge underground water needs to be implemented with greater earnestness. Concerted government efforts must seek community participation, and the revival of the traditional water sources has to be encouraged