Water Conservation in Mission Mode

Saving water is equal to saving money, saving energy and saving nature. It is time to get into mission mode to preserve and conserve water, of which India has only four per cent of the global resources, notwithstanding the bountiful rainfall. — Vinod Johri

 

Humanity on the Mother Earth is dependent on water for their survival and sustenance. Even if the planet’s 70% surface is covered with water, there is only 0.3% is fresh water.  Clean and safe water is the most essential for all living organisms to be able to live healthy and long lives, and with the increasing rate of water pollution, the conservation of water for basic needs is the most important.

Being one of the most fundamental natural resources that all living things need, water is a top priority. The Earth and the human body are similar because   most of it is covered by water, without which they will not survive.  

All living beings may be deprived of food, shelter or comfort, but they will not sustain without water. Water is required to maintain personal and domestic hygiene that would be enough to promote good health. With the increase in population, industrialisation and high living standards, the demand for water is on the increase. Therefore, gaining access to clean drinking water and sanitation would turn out to be highly challenging and extremely difficult.

Groundwater has emerged as the mainstay of India’s agriculture as well as drinking water security. A sharp decline in water levels due to withdrawal exceeding the annual replenishment is a matter of huge concern in many parts of the country over the last few decades. Effective management of the limited groundwater is crucial for ensuring its long-term sustainability. It is extremely important that the decisions taken are pragmatic and based on realistic ongoing assessment of availability. State governments and the Centre have to work in cohesion on both the dynamic assessment of resources as well as course correction of usage. 

Through the years, we have seen the phenomenal rise in water contamination due to the disposal of toxic chemicals and industrial waste into the water bodies, untreated sewage, fertilisers, pesticides, animal wastes, etc. The problems will amplify because of shortages in water supply and availability of clean drinking water if this continues. 

We are one of the largest water users per unit of GDP, which is an unfortunate due to our inefficient use of this life sustaining resource.  The problem is further exacerbated by the well-known fact that a lot of our water – both in the rivers and underground – is immensely contaminated with chemical effluents from the industries, faecal matter, garbage dumps, fluorides and arsenic.  

The total annual rainfall in India – estimated at 4,000 billion cubic metres (bcm) – is nearly four times our current requirement and three times the projected requirement in 2050. So, the big management challenge is to capture enough of this bounty. Unfortunately, our present estimated capture is only around 8% and the rest just runs off into the sea. The issue is complicated as the rainfall is neither uniform throughout the year nor is it distributed uniformly across the country. Just to explain the acute diversity, 75% of all rains happen in May to September. Only three states, J&K, Himachal and Uttarakhand, experience significant rains almost all year round. 

Geographically, against the 119 cm annual average rainfall for the whole country, the North East, the Meghalaya Hills and the Western Ghats get about 250 cm and that figure for Northern Kashmir and Western Rajasthan is a mere 40 cm! The same story is repeated in the case of groundwater; whereas many parts of the country draw much more than the replenishment, there is underutilisation of the same in the eastern and north eastern states. On an overall basis, water, the fundamental to livelihoods, food security and sustainable development – is in dire need of better and more scientific management. 

There is too much wastage of freshwater and careless use of water in a day to day life. The contamination from industries that throw untreated water into the rivers and lakes is alarming. The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers pollutes freshwater. The sewage water is also drained into rivers that pollute water. With the increasing temperature of the planet, the groundwater level is depleting. Moreover, clouds are moving away toward the poles from the equator, due to climate change.

Water conservation is a series of methods aimed at reducing our use of freshwater resources. Water conservation methods range from conservation methods like water monitoring and conservation-friendly building codes instituted by the government, to strategies for everyday people to reduce home water use.

Proper water management is important for a number of reasons -  

1.    Water is a resource. The current water supply on Earth comes from surface water runoff, groundwater, and snow. This supply comes from the same sources that have been used for thousands of years, which is threatened by overdevelopment, pollution, and global warming. Only three percent of the Earth’s water supply is made up of freshwater, with only half a percent of that available for human consumption. 

2.    Conservation deadens droughts. Dry areas like deserts experience regular drought, in which the rainfall and snowfall aren’t sufficient and result in water shortage. Conserving water can help alleviate the effects of water shortages in any given community.

Large-scale water conservation can be implemented on the institutional and societal level, in order to make a significant difference in the amount of clean water we have. Below are some methods that government, businesses, and agriculture can do to conserve this natural resource :-

1.    Updating to modern irrigation methods - Updating agricultural methods to adhere to water-efficient systems like drip irrigation—which distributes small amounts of water across large areas, which drips down to roots of plants—can help save thousands of gallons of water per year wasted by traditional irrigation methods.  

2.    Increasing forest cover – Increasing Forest cover by planting trees and fighting deforestation can reduce the amount of rainfall lost to evaporation and help conserve groundwater. Trees are more drought-tolerant than most crops, and planting more trees along river beds and reservoirs can further protect our water resources from disappearing or contamination.

3.    Water conservation legislation – Governmental can institute legislation to stop businesses from dumping waste in precious water resources, which can contaminate groundwater and reduce the amount available for use. They can also institute water conservation programs requiring businesses to be more transparent about their water footprint.  

4.    Water redistribution - Canals, pipes, and other irrigation systems can help make use of excess water storage by collecting and redistributing that water to areas affected by drought or lack of rainfall. Redistributing water cuts down on waste, while also delivering much-needed water to the places that need it most.

5.    Better incentives - Adopting water conservation policies that offer more incentives for agricultural businesses that produce food can give farmers the tools they need to both afford and implement the right strategies in conserving water.

Various organisations and governments have been trying their best to create awareness among common people about the growing need to conserve and preserve water by taking new initiatives every now and then. The following are a few examples of the different initiatives taken so far:-

(a)    Rain water harvesting from all conceivable surfaces.
(b)    Avoiding privatisation of lakes and other small water bodies
(c)    Maintaining daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports of water usage and analysing them to control the usage of water
(d)    Recycling wastewater
(e)    Switching to advanced crop patterns and more efficient irrigation methods like drip and pulse technology.
(f)    Surface water harvesting through farm ponds, check dams, rejuvenation of water bodies lost due to the avarice of builders and their unholy nexus with civic bodies. Most natural water bodies and natural drainage channels in all major metros and even tier-2 towns have disappeared over the years.
(g)    Using leak detection piping, replacing faulty water metres, adjusting water pressure
(h)    Financing various water conservation projects
(i)    Using online databases to monitor water usage
(j)    Installing rainwater collection systems
(k)    Industries to recycle waste water and treat all sewage and effluents before discharging the same
(l)    Desalination of water

However, desalination of water still can have major environmental impacts. Fish can be killed when they are trapped against screens that protect desalination plants’ intake valves, and small organisms such as bacteria and plankton can be sucked into the plants and killed when they pass through the treatment system.  Desalination plants discharge brine and wastewater, which can also kill nearby aquatic life if the process is not done properly. Generating the large quantity of energy that the plants consume has its own environmental impacts until it can be done carbon-free, which is still years off in most cases. Scalable technologies for removing salt from water have improved steadily over the past few decades. This is especially true for treating brackish groundwater, which is less salty than seawater.

Saving water is equal to saving money, saving energy and saving nature. It is time to get into mission mode to preserve and conserve water, of which India has only four per cent of the global resources, notwithstanding the bountiful rainfall.

 

Vinod Johri: Additional Commissioner of Income Tax (Retd)

Share This