| | | Water Conservation Issues

From WikiVerde

Most societies across nations, across the globe keep growing by the day, rather by the minute. Population is always on the increase, barring a small percentage of the global arena. Water constitutes one of the five elements essential to sustain life on this earth - human, animal and plant life. Though two thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water, it does not represent the quantity of water available for human, plant or animal consumption because this water is saline, or inaccessible. A deeper analysis of water available for human consumption shows that, of the total water available, just a small percentage is fit to be consumed.

Limited Resources

Fresh water obtained from ground water tables or rivers alone contribute to the water needs of the earth’s occupants. Availability of ground water is restricted to specific terrains in a specific geographical area and depletes with exploitation. Recharging this resource is often neglected, leading to acute shortages of potable water in those regions.

Potable Water

Potable water, or water fit for human consumption, is an area of major concern in most of the developed as well as developing nations. A few decades ago, ground water was considered very pure and fit for human consumption. However today that scenario has changed.

Groundwater Pollution

In several areas, pesticides have slowly but definitely started creeping into the ground water making it potentially dangerous for human consumption. The old notion that soil acts as an effective filter for these pesticides, before they reach the ground water has also been belied. In effect, drinking water has become a big business and developed nations including the United States of America are importing potable water. Unless urgent measures are instituted, this situation can only go from bad to worse. In rain-fed areas, most of the water from rains goes back into the rivers to join the seas and very little towards recharging the ground water. Plenty of effort needs to go into harnessing and conserving the supplies from nature. Urban agglomerates in particular will have to urgently address this problem through appropriate water harvesting measures. In countries like India, potable water is often used for purposes other than human consumption, be it gardening or the laundry. Efforts to sensitize the population on the impending situation must be aggressively pursued by the Government as well as Social agencies to ward off a future catastrophe.

Agriculture

Agriculture is essential to sustain human life and to sustain agriculture, water is equally as essential. Rivers contribute in a large measure to the water needs of agriculture except in arid or semi-arid tropics. The River water is harnessed through dams and the water harnessed in the dams is released through canals. But the rivers get adequate water to fill the dams only when copious rainfall is received in the catchment areas and the water from the rains flow into the rivers through scientific effort to harness the resource. Soil erosion, deforestation etc. are major issues threatening the rain water from reaching the rivers.

Floods and Droughts

Countries like China, India, Bangladesh have perpetual problems of floods, and paradoxically though, droughts. In some of these regions, the rivers can be linked to guide the excess waters from a particular river into another. This process may be long drawn and involve technical bottlenecks in some regions. But, such an effort will not only harness the river water effectively, but also prevent floods and droughts in several regions. Massive financial resources would be needed to accomplish the task, apart from decisive political will. But the effort would benefit generations to come, and precious resources otherwise expended in flood and drought relief can be canalized into this effort. But, the benefit of such a project will be perpetual in nature and can alleviate the suffering of millions of people in the region.

De-Salination

As has been mentioned earlier, sea water is available in abundance all over the globe, and efforts to convert this into water fit for human consumption can be taken up in several parts of the world on emergent basis. India has made some progress on this front with its first commercial project for desalination of sea water. The project is in the private sector and has a technical partner from Spain. A “Build Own Operate and Transfer” project at an estimated cost of about $400 million would produce 1.0 million liters of potable water per day. Without factoring in the project cost, the cost of producing 100 liters of potable water is only $ 0.15. The project has a scalability of about 10 times and at peak load factor, the price per liter of water would come down substantially. Another advantage claimed with the treated water is that it has a dissolved solids content of only 10 ppm as against 200-300 ppm in bottled mineral water.

The Indian city of Chennai implemented this project only when the city faced serious drought conditions and was faced with a threat of evacuation for want of water. Nevertheless, the bold initiative can be an eye opener to many other societies grappling with similar situations.

Forestation Measures

Forests are nature’s gift to mankind for a number of reasons. Yet, we have been plundering it for commercial reasons. The result is large scale soil erosion and deforestation. The forests help in collating the clouds and creating the atmospheric pressure required to induce rain. Lately though, humanity has woken up to this reality and afforestation measures are in progress at least in some parts of the world.

Conclusion

Satellite imagery today, provides a vivid picture of the ecosystem we have, and tells us as to what needs to be done to protect it. Old timers hold that necessity is the mother of invention. Water reclamation methods and adequate conservation measures can address the impending danger effectively. We need the human race and those governing them in different geographies to understand the issue in all its seriousness to act, and act now.

Sources:

http://www.livemint.com/2007/04/19005402/Countrys-largest-desalination.html

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/08/12/stories/2005081202820300.htm

http://www.helium.com/items/898182-water-conservation-issue-wherever