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A world without water is hard to imagine. But in not so distant
a future this spring of life may literally dry up unless urgent
measures are taken to conserve it. Fatima Chowdhury reports
If you were to wake up one day to find that there was no
water left in this world, what would you do? It is hard to
think of life without water. Men, animals, plants cannot survive
without water. But we tend to take this invaluable resource
for granted, believing in its perpetuity. It is only recently
that the prediction of huge shortage in sweet water has made
people sit up.
The earth’s surface is covered by two-third water of
which a large part is saline and unsuitable for consumption.
Approximately 2.5 per cent f the world’s water is saline
free with roughly another two-thirds in the form of icecaps
and glaciers. The remaining 20 per cent of the water is in
isolated areas and come in the form of floods and monsoons.
The fresh water available from rivers, lakes and reservoirs
encompasses no more than a quarter of one per cent of the
total water available which leaves us with only 0.08 per cent
of the earth’s water for consumption. A rather small
percentage considering that in the next two decades our water
consumption is expected to rise to almost 40 per cent. Further,
a report published by the United Nations in 2003 cautioned
that roughly 2.7 billon people would face severe water shortages
by the year 2025. The various global reports estimate that
the average world-wide water supply is likely to diminish
by a third within the next 20 years, which means there will
be almost less than one-third water available for everyone.
In India, water scarcity is a growing concern as the strains
of an expanding population and rapid development begin to
demand more of the natural resources of the country. A recent
report “India’s Water Economy: Bracing for a Turbulent
Future’’ by John Briscoe, senior advisor, World
Bank, warns that India’s need for water will surpass
all its supplies in the next 15 years. “Unless water
management practices are changed – and changed soon –
India will face severe water crisis within the next two decades,”
it says.
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Today, while there may be some skepticism regarding the state
of India’s water crisis, it is a problem which needs
to be seriously addressed as large parts of rural and urban
India face depleting water conditions and quantity. Most often
the water sources are polluted by agricultural runoff and
sewage. Scarce surface water and overused groundwater resources
create further challenges, while the environment fallouts
of dams and canals to store water overshadow the advantages.
According to World Bank, while access to safe drinking water
has improved there still remains an estimated 21per cent of
communicable diseases related to unsafe water.
However, there is a silver lining too. Several non-profit
organisations such as WaterPartners International (WPI) are
doing commendable work. WPI is a non-profit organisation working
in India since 2001 to provide rural areas access to safe
drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities. The organisation
has clearly outlined that a large number of people in rural
India still do not have access to adequate sanitation and
the available water quality is poor, resulting in increased
cases of water-related diseases. It has successfully implemented
programmes like ‘The Melanaduvalur Water Project’
and ‘The Kanganipatti Community Water Project’ to
create new water and sanitation facilities in rural India.
It succeeds because it relies on grassroots implementation
and uses innovative mechanisms such as its recently started
Water Credit Initiative to provide small loans to communities
to finance their water and sanitation needs. The scheme scores
with its innovation.
The government does have schemes and policies to encourage
water conservation and management. However, as S Damodaran,
India Coordinator of WPI, says, “Somewhere along the
implementation level, things begin to give way to poor coordination
and planning.” Interestingly, he points out, “Every
year, the central team of the Government of India visit flood
and drought affected areas and announce crores of rupees as
relief fund. But these relief measures fail to concentrate
on a basic sustainable solution to water conservation resulting
in avoidable recurring cost for the government.” So,
the policies have either not yielded results or are yet to
take off. It is not surprising then that historically more
than 50 per cent of the water supply projects in the developing
world fail.
Hence, there is great need to not only improve on the local
schemes in place but also come up with innovative technology
and approach to better water management. The Watershed Organization
Trust (WOTR) established in 1993 addresses the water issue
as part of a wider Watershed Development programme. A watershed,
according to WOTR, can be defined as the “drainage basin
or catchment area of a particular stream or river.” Simply,
it is an area from where the water flows to a particular drainage
system, like a river or stream. Watershed development tries
to bring about the best possible balance in the environment
between natural resources on one side, and human and other
living beings on the other. Water management is one of the
components of Watershed Development where there is an emphasis
on conservation, regeneration and the sensible use of the
resources.
Another viable and simple solution is Rainwater Harvesting
strongly promoted by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE),
an NGO from Delhi. The basic idea is to trap “rain water
where it falls” such as runoff from indigenous catchments,
terraces and so on. The introduction of precision sprinklers
and irrigation systems, which prevent water wastage to plantation
of less water-intensive crops can also be considered. However,
at the end it is educating people to be responsible in their
usage of water that is of utmost importance.
The water crisis is all set to get worse in the coming years
with population growth, pollution, changing weather patterns
and poor water management. It is now a race to change the
tide where every positive step towards water conservation
will make a difference to confront an unimaginable prophecy
of a world without water.
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