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the-south-asian.com March 2004 |
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March
2004 Wildlife Music Dance Environment Art Books
Books Between
Heaven and Hell
The
Road to Freedom
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Page 2 of 2
Water for the Future "Wars will be fought between nations
over water" by Isidore Domnick Mendis
The World Water Day theme is Water for the Future. The programme is calling on the global community to observe sustainable approaches to water use for the benefit of future generations. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the lead agency for World Water Day, aims to work with governments and key partners to plan events that achieve this end especially in countries that are facing severe water crisis at present and in the future. India is one such country. The scarcity of water in India is just not confined to the stand- off between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over sharing of Cauvery water or Delhi and Haryana for Yamuna water or even between Goa and Karnataka over the Mandel- Mandovi basin. There is an acute water shortage especially in mega cities like Delhi, Mumbai. Chennai. Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Barring Mumbai many cities have faced irregular spells of monsoons. Delhi in particular had the worst summer last year with very little rainfall and even less water. The problem of depleting water tables is more in cities where the centralised water supply system is not able to meet the total water demands. Up to 40 percent of the water demand in urban areas and upto 70-80 percent in the rural areas is met through groundwater withdrawal. "With the monsoon being below normal, the natural water aquifers have not had time to recharge. Due to the shortage of water supply from the centralised water distribution system the quantum of groundwater withdrawal is increasing. Thus there is bound to be a steep decline in the ground water levels this year as compared to any of the previous years," says Himanshu Grover, programme director, Natural Heritage Division of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach). Take, for example, Delhi. With a population of 138 lakhs it falls short of 60 gallons per capita per day . With its present production of 650 million gallons per day [MGD] there is a shortfall of 150 MGD. Chennai, the fourth largest city in India receives only 107 MGD, Banglore with a population of 50 lakhs and above has a water supply of only 110 MGD. " I think the water crisis in cities is going to grow to ghastly proportions. If one doesn’t do something about it very fast, we are in for real big trouble," opines Sunita Narain, director of the Centre for Science and Environment which recently blew the lid of the bottled water contamination. Concurs P.K. Tripathi, the Chief of Delhi Jal Board " With the increase in population and decline in water table, the availability of water is going to be a huge problem in major metros. The whole country is going to be affected by the scarcity of water in big cities." Conservation of water is the key in the drive to tide over the scarcity. It is an irony that Cherrapunjee which receives about 11,000 mm rainfall annually suffers from acute shortage of drinking water. This is because the rainwater is not conserved and is simply allowed to drain away. Experts have been crying themselves hoarse that rainwater harvesting is the need of the hour not just to meet the increasing demand of water in big metros but also to augment the ground water storage and to improve the quality. Says Tripathi, the Delhi water chief, " The benefits of harvesting are many. The quality of ground water improves. It also raises the water levels in wells and borewells that are drying up. It mitigates the effects of drought, reduces soil erosion as the surface run-off is reduced. Choking of storm water drains and flooding of roads decreases and there is a tremendous saving of energy." The Natural Heritage Division of Intach is the first organisation in Asia to have attempted an urban level water augmentation plan based on rainwater harvesting. Thereafter it made similar efforts for various towns of Gujarat. Intach has been able to technologically improve the existing rainwater technology by the use of pressure sand filters that have a better filtration rate than the traditional gravity based filter and also require much less of an area. With these filter the quantum of recharge is appreciable and far more than that a similar gravity based filter. But all schemes will fail if every individual does not make an individual effort to save water. " Whether one is shaving , washing face or even having bath. One can judiciously use water by taking water in a tumbler or bucket and not keeping the tap open. Cars and other personal vehicles and even sweeping of the floors in the house must be done with water already used in washing clothes." Says Tripathi. That the need of the hour is to have a dual water supply system---one pipeline for drinking and the other for all other purpose---is being seriously thought of by the government. " There must be two pipelines one that is filtered and meant to carry water only for drinking purposes and other for recycled water for housecleaning purposes, gardening and for use in the bathroom," says Ravinder Singh, chief engineer of the Central Water Commission. Singh adds that the wastage in the distribution of water through leakages is also a major problem area. " The damaged pipelines particularly in urban India account for heavy losses. Serious thought has to be given to this criminal loss of water." According to the UNEP depleting supplies and disproportionate sharing of freshwater resources are among the major problems being faced. " Difficult challenges are ahead. In many countries, including industrialized ones, problems are becoming more acute, as water demand rises and more people move to expanding urban areas. In short, the need for safe, clean drinking water is growing as fast as the world’s population." The UNEP experts agree that if nothing is done, two-thirds of the world's people will suffer from moderate to severe lack of water by the year 2025. Problems increasingly could cross national borders and the United Nations foresees the chance of a serious world water shortage by 2010 that could trigger conflicts. " The sobering outlook is bringing more countries and international organizations together in new ways. As they forge partnerships for sustainable water development, they are pooling expertise and limited resources on several fronts, including the use of nuclear science and related technologies," says a UNEP study. It adds that a large part of the earth's water resources are not safe, clean or renewable, and finding new reserves is costly. Often, the technology is not yet at hand to economically benefit from potential resources locked deep inside the earth's crust. Greater steps are needed to conserve and use water more efficiently – and to more fully apply the proven tools that are at hand to understand and manage earth’s resources. However, the study warns, that solutions will not come cheaply or easily – the World Bank has estimated that about $600 billion needs to be invested in water delivery systems alone. Concludes the UNEP study, " This year let us use World Water Day to open the eyes of the world to the lack of water for development, and the reasons behind this problem. The day should mark the beginning of a new era of co-operation between the rich and the poor, in an attempt to provide clean water to those who have none, or very little." Nothing could ring truer than these words from top experts of the United Nations Environment Programme.
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