One of the biggest ironies around water is that it comes from rivers and other wetlands. Yet it is seen as divorced from them. While water is used as a resource, public policy does not always grasp that it is a part of the natural ecosystem. Efforts at engineering water systems are thus efforts at augmenting water supply rather than strengthening the capacities of ecological systems.

Which one of the following is the most logical and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?

Passage does not talk about ‘Ramsar Convention’ neither does it talk about ‘cost of its supply’, so options (a) and (d) are ruled out.

Passage talks about ‘strengthening the capacities of ecological systems’. For this you have to give more respect to the wetlands, from where the water is sourced, and that can be done by considering them more than just open sources of water. So option (c) is correct.

Option (b) is not the most logical inference as modernization of water systems does not necessarily mean respecting natural ecosystems.