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India’s Turbulent Future

Managing Water Efficiently

By Dr. Vinod Mehta

This year monsoon is predicted to be normal, which has increased the chances of good harvest. But there is larger concern which goes beyond good monsoon and that is the availability of water in the country is decreasing with every passing day and unless something is done to conserve water we may be courting trouble, vis-à-vis, population, agriculture and industry. The experts have forewarned that the water crises could have serious economic and social consequences.

According to a World Bank Report: “India faces a turbulent water future. Unless water management practices are changed – and changed soon – India will face a severe water crisis within the next two decades and will have neither the cash to build new infrastructure nor the water needed by its growing economy and rising population.”

The unresolved disputes over water-sharing between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and among Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are pointers in this direction. At the moment these disputes are dormant because of the good monsoon this year. But they will again resurface if there is a bad monsoon in any year. Water like land is limited and its total availability cannot be increased to any significant extent. Therefore, the political leadership of the country must rise to the occasion to tackle the impending water crisis.

Let us first have a look at some of the facts. Fresh water represents less than 0.5% of the total water on the earth surface. Rest of the water is either in the form of sea water or locked up in icecaps or soil. The worldwide consumption of water is doubling every twenty years more than twice the rate of increase in population.

Water is being used recklessly despite the fact that it is scarce. A large amount of water is being wasted in agriculture, industry and urban areas. It has been estimated that available technologies and better upgradation practices, agricultural water demand could be cut by about 50% and that in urban areas by about 33% without affecting the quality of life. But most of the governments do not have adequate laws or regulations to protect their water systems.

In most of the developing countries the fresh water supply comes in the form of seasonal rains. Such rains do not provide enough of time for efficient use during the monsoon. India, for instance, gets 90% of its rain fall during the summer monsoon season which lasts from June to September. For the rest of the months there is hardly any rain. As a result of the seasonal nature of rain India can make use of no more than 20% of its potentially available fresh water resources.

It is reported that the per capita availability of renewable fresh water in the country has fallen drastically over the last fifty years. The water table is rapidly falling with unregulated over exploitation of groundwater. By 2025 water scarcity in India is expected to be acute and big dams, mega river linking projects or privatized water distribution may not help. Apart from rain the other two important sources of water in India are rivers and ground water. India has 14 major, 44 medium and 55 minor river basins. India’s ground water resources are almost ten times its annual rain fall. Like surface water nearly 85% of the ground water is used mainly for irrigation.

It is quite obvious that the country will have to do something so that the water problem does not assume any alarming proportions. Since we do not have any control either over monsoon or rivers the only way to conserve water is through efficient management of rain and river water. It calls for various measures in the next two to three years.

Amazing that despite the fact that we are faced with the problem of growing scarcity of water, we do not have any national water policy. During drought we dig up many areas under ‘food for work programme’ for storing rain water during the next monsoon. Then we come up with ideas like linking of rivers and occasionally we beat our chest for the falling underground water table. One has been hearing about water harvesting for several years but not much is known as to how much work has been done in this area.

It is, therefore, essential that the country must have a clear cut water management policy for the next fifty years. How the river water is to be used and how it is to be diverted from surplus to water deficient areas must be clearly spelt out. Linking of rivers is a good idea but before attempting such a course an exercise must be carried out very carefully to weigh all the pros and cons of it because once the rivers have been inter linked it may not be possible to reverse the whole thing if we find one day that it is not working well or has created numerous other problems. Secondly, linking of rivers will displace millions of people. How are we going to handle them.

For each district and for each village we should have a data base on the average annual utility of water, number of wells, ponds, pools, streams etc. This will help manage water in a better way. Beyond this there is an urgent need to change the attitude of the people towards the use of water. As of today people are wasting and polluting a large amount of water in many ways. The most polluting of them are the city sewage and industrial water discharged into the rivers. Currently only about 10% of the waste water generated is treated. The rest is discharged as it is into our water bodies. Due to this, pollutants enter ground water and other water bodies. This water which ultimately ends up in our household is often highly contaminated carrying disease causing microbes.

Water from the agricultural fields that drains into rivers is another major water pollutant as it contains fertilizers and pesticides. The effects of water pollution are not only devastating to people but also to animals, fish and birds. Polluted water is unsuitable for drinking, recreation, agriculture and industry. It diminishes the aesthetic quality of lakes and rivers. More seriously contaminated water destroys aquatic life and reduces its re-product ability. Eventually it is an hazard to human health. Nobody can escape the affects of water pollution.

Therefore, apart from having a national water policy, the government along with NGOs and local communities should start a long term campaign to educate and sensitize the general public about the need to save water and stop its pollution. Management of scarce water should also be made a part of the school curriculum. The children should be taught the value of conserving water.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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