The Industrial sector’s demand for water is growing by leaps and bounds. Industry should learn to augment its water resources; it should minimize its water use, conserve water. It should adopt waste treatment procedures. Ground Water levels are declining precipitously in Growth Centres as people bore deeper in search of water that municipalities cannot supply. Large-scale groundwater extraction for over a decade because of the burgeoning demand spawned by mushrooming industries has caused depletion of water sources.
The situation for agriculture, however, seems worse than perceived, judging by the obstructions in even routine recharge of groundwater at recharge-locations. Evidence collated by researchers, points to ‘an unsustainable consumption of groundwater for irrigation and other anthropogenic uses in India’.
It paints a bleak picture about the fate of 114 million people sandwiched between ‘reduction of agricultural output and shortages of potable water’, resulting in ‘extensive socioeconomic stress’. The loss of water is of the order of 109 cu km, ‘which is double the capacity of India’s largest surface water reservoir.
The Government knows fully well that rampant groundwater withdrawal had created a major deficiency in sustainability in lift-water structures. Farmers continue their reckless adherence to cultivation of high-yielding varieties, which exploit lift-water resources more than flow-water. An expert hydro geologist opined that groundwater is first and foremost “a resource for potable water, and should be sparingly used for irrigation, least of all power-generation. This is happening throughout the country, including the northeastern region”. Groundwater contributed significantly to the tripling of gross irrigated area between 1970 and 1999, estimated at 33,100,000 hectares. This should not have happened.
Not that India has deficient rainfall. The average annual precipitation of 120 cm is adequate.. The problem is that we seldom try to address the anomalous distribution of rainfall. We seem blissfully unaware that the distribution pattern is reflected in the number of rainy days, not total rainfall.
Kerala was the land of abundant water. It had ample rainfall. But this is old fable. Today, its per capita usage of Water is worst than that of Rajasthan! It occupies the 20th place amongst the States in India in the per capita usage of Water.
People must begin to value their water endowment. This means implementing rainwater harvesting in each house, shed, and colony. Even during the unknown periods of History, every city had a treasure of water harvesting structure, which provided it with a flood cushion and allowed it to recharge its ground water reserves. But today’s planners cannot see anything beyond land. With the result, towns forgot that they need water. They forgot their own lifeline.
Today, builders and architects have simply never been taught that many other ways of holding water that exist outside. They have been trained to see water as waste and build systems that dispose it as swift as possible. We have to retrain our builders and architects. Our planners do need to understand conservation of Water.
We are all mindless about wasting water; now let us get mindful of retaining it.
Can India be an economic powerhouse without water? That is the question the country should be asking after per capita availability of fresh water has fallen from 5177 cubic meters to 1869 cubic meters in 50 years. That is preciously close to the 1700 mark fixed by the United Nations, below which we will become a “water stressed” nation.
The situation for agriculture, however, seems worse than perceived, judging by the obstructions in even routine recharge of groundwater at recharge-locations. Evidence collated by researchers, points to ‘an unsustainable consumption of groundwater for irrigation and other anthropogenic uses in India’.
It paints a bleak picture about the fate of 114 million people sandwiched between ‘reduction of agricultural output and shortages of potable water’, resulting in ‘extensive socioeconomic stress’. The loss of water is of the order of 109 cu km, ‘which is double the capacity of India’s largest surface water reservoir.
The Government knows fully well that rampant groundwater withdrawal had created a major deficiency in sustainability in lift-water structures. Farmers continue their reckless adherence to cultivation of high-yielding varieties, which exploit lift-water resources more than flow-water. An expert hydro geologist opined that groundwater is first and foremost “a resource for potable water, and should be sparingly used for irrigation, least of all power-generation. This is happening throughout the country, including the northeastern region”. Groundwater contributed significantly to the tripling of gross irrigated area between 1970 and 1999, estimated at 33,100,000 hectares. This should not have happened.
Not that India has deficient rainfall. The average annual precipitation of 120 cm is adequate.. The problem is that we seldom try to address the anomalous distribution of rainfall. We seem blissfully unaware that the distribution pattern is reflected in the number of rainy days, not total rainfall.
Kerala was the land of abundant water. It had ample rainfall. But this is old fable. Today, its per capita usage of Water is worst than that of Rajasthan! It occupies the 20th place amongst the States in India in the per capita usage of Water.
People must begin to value their water endowment. This means implementing rainwater harvesting in each house, shed, and colony. Even during the unknown periods of History, every city had a treasure of water harvesting structure, which provided it with a flood cushion and allowed it to recharge its ground water reserves. But today’s planners cannot see anything beyond land. With the result, towns forgot that they need water. They forgot their own lifeline.
Today, builders and architects have simply never been taught that many other ways of holding water that exist outside. They have been trained to see water as waste and build systems that dispose it as swift as possible. We have to retrain our builders and architects. Our planners do need to understand conservation of Water.
We are all mindless about wasting water; now let us get mindful of retaining it.
Can India be an economic powerhouse without water? That is the question the country should be asking after per capita availability of fresh water has fallen from 5177 cubic meters to 1869 cubic meters in 50 years. That is preciously close to the 1700 mark fixed by the United Nations, below which we will become a “water stressed” nation.
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