Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Resources, Conservation & Recycling journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec Full length article Estimation of industrial water demand in India using census-based statistical data Naveen Joseph a, ⁎ , Dongryeol Ryu a , Hector M. Malano a , Biju George a , K.P. Sudheer b , Anshuman c a Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia b Dept. of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India c The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Industrial water demand Water consumption Principal component analysis Industrial production Census-based statistical data ABSTRACT Rising population and industrialisation aided by technological advancements have resulted in increased in- dustrial water demand in India. Industrial water demand accounts for about 8–10 % of the total water demand in the country. Although some national and international organisations report industrial water demand, there is a wide variation in data due to the scarcity of the reliable data and inconsistencies in the methods adopted for quantification. Rather than using these estimates, the census-based statistical data could provide better figures. Therefore, the present study aims to quantify industrial water demand by compiling census-based statistical data collected from various Governmental agencies in India. Based on census datasets collected at National and State Governmental institutions, this study develops a new model to estimate industrial water demand. Industrial water demand is estimated in this study at State and monthly scale from 1991 to 2010. The study models industrial water demand as a function of industrial production data, industrial survey components, and eco- nomic/technological development indicators. Principal component analysis is employed to reduce these large number of input variables to a smaller number of latent variables, which account for the variance in the input variables. The model results are cross-validated with industrial water demand data obtained from National Commission on Integrated Water Resources Development (NCIWRD). Country-level estimates are disaggregated to State-level water demand estimates based on number of industrial units in each State. These State-level results are verified against an independent census dataset on industrial water demand collected from State Governmental organisations. It is found that industrial water demand increased at a rate of 2% per annum during the period of analysis, which exceeds the increase rate of agricultural and domestic water demands during the same period. 1. Introduction India has the largest water footprint in the world (Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2006). The blue water footprint of the country constitutes 24% (243 BCM/year) of the global total (Hoekstra and Mekonnen, 2012; Hoekstra et al., 2012). Blue water footprint is defined as the total volume of both surface and groundwater resources consumed by eva- potranspiration or incorporated into a product (Hoekstra and Mekonnen, 2012). The primary consumers of blue water resources in India are agriculture, industry and households. Although agricultural water demand still comprises the largest part of the national water consumption, 70% as of 2002, the contribution of agricultural sector to GDP had fallen from 45% in 1965 to 18% in 2005 (Amarasinghe et al., 2005; Cagliarini and Rush, 2011). On the contrary, the non-agricultural water demands are steeply increasing at an annual rate of 1.4% due to population increase and developments in the manufacturing sector (Bhat, 2014; Madhusudhan, 2015). In particular, industrial water de- mand is growing at a rapid rate associated with the increasing pace of industrial development (Water, 2009). For instance, the annual growth of chemical and construction industry is 9%, textile and food 6%, and paper industry 5% since 1990 (Aggarwal and Kumar, 2011). Never- theless, a proper quantification of industrial water demand in India has https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.05.036 Received 1 December 2018; Received in revised form 24 May 2019; Accepted 24 May 2019 Abbreviations: BCM, Billion Cubic Metres; CEA, Central Electricity Authority; CPCB, Central Pollution Control Board; CSE, Centre for Science and Environment; CWC, Central Water Commission; FAO, Food and Agriculture Organisation; GDP, Gross Domestic Product; ICID, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage; MOSPI, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation; NCIWRD, National Commission on Integrated Water Resources Development; SSC-MOWR, Standing Sub-Committee of Ministry of Water Resources ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: naveenj@student.unimelb.edu.au (N. Joseph). Resources, Conservation & Recycling 149 (2019) 31–44 0921-3449/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T