WATER STRESS AND WATER CONSERVATION

WATER STRESS AND WATER CONSERVATION

Water stress is a condition where the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain period or when poor quality of available water restricts its use. Thus, water stress occurs when deterioration of freshwater takes place in terms of quality and quantity.

Status of Water Stress in India

• Ground Water: India has the dubious distinction of being the world’s largest user of groundwater by far, even as the water table has been falling by an average of 0.4 m nationally.
  • For Example: Reports from Bihar suggest that the water table there has fallen by several feet of late. Well, over half of the districts in the state are facing or expected to be facing severe groundwater over-exploitation.
• Surface Water: One recent report mentions that over 70% of surface irrigation water is being simply wasted, nationally.
  • For Example: Given suboptimal command area development and distribution of water in ill-maintained (and uncovered) canals, leads to the suboptimal utilization of water infrastructure and often results in heavy soil erosion and siltation.
• Monsoon: A recent report by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) shows a ‘significant’ drop in rainfall in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal over the past three decades, and rising variability in the monsoons nationwide.

Water Stress Across Regions in India

• Himalayas: The main source of water for the Himalayan states are the freshwater springs fed by numerous rivers originating in the mountains. Global warming-related melting of glaciers has changed the water availability in these streams. Urbanization and the resultant pollution, lack of traditional water harvesting methods in these once upon a time water-ample region is turning them into water-stressed regions.
  • For Example: The 2018 Shimla, HP water crisis
• North Indian Plains: Population pressure, untreated sewage, overexploitation of water for agriculture and industries is polluting the rivers of these regions, thus making drinking water unavailable for many.
  • For Example: 82% of Punjab’s land area has seen a huge decline in groundwater levels. This happened due to Groundwater extraction which was at 35% in the 1960s and 1970s, rose to 70% post the Green Revolution
• South India: Erratic rainfall, pollution of rivers due to heavy development activities, inadequate agricultural practices, over-dependence on groundwater, and lack of conservation efforts are resulting in an acute shortage of drinking water in many regions.
  • For Example: The 2019 water crisis in Chennai.
• Northeast: Despite being a region of high rainfall, received from both orthographic and monsoon winds, NE is facing a water crisis due to anthropogenic reasons such as mining, pollution and lack of water conservation strategies.
• Western India: Arid and semi-arid climate of Rajasthan and Gujarat due to scanty rainfall creates harsh conditions of water scarcity. In regions of Maharashtra, the reason for the water crisis was incorrect cropping patterns.
• The Coastal Plains: Rising sea level and overexploitation of groundwater are leading to the ingress of saline water in the aquifers leading to water stress.

Reasons for Water Stress in India

• Rapid Urbanization: High water demand by the dense population living in cities in India is causing stress on groundwater and surface water resources.
• Climate Change: Rising temperatures will increase evaporation and lead to increases in precipitation, though there will be more stark regional variations in rainfall.
• Depletion of Aquifers: Due to the expanding human population, many of the world’s major aquifers are becoming depleted. Due to both direct human consumption as well as agricultural irrigation by groundwater.
• Pollution and Water Protection: Many pollutants threaten water supplies, the discharge of raw municipal sewage, untreated industrial waste and agricultural runoff carrying pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers into natural waters.
• Monsoon Dependence: There is a huge dependence on monsoon rains to replenish most of India’s important water sources such as underground aquifers, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. But monsoon is vulnerable to factors such as climate change, El-Nino, etc.
• Over-Exploitation: The groundwater provides for over two-thirds of irrigation requirements. In the last four decades, about 85% of the total addition to irrigation has come from groundwater. This is clearly unsustainable resulting in steep depletion of the groundwater table.
• Wrong Crop Selection: Groundwater is used to cultivate water-intensive crops like paddy and sugarcane (promoted by Green revolution) in rain deficit states like Punjab and Maharashtra respectively.

WATER CONSERVATION

Water needs no introduction, the importance of this is known to one and all. However, despite water being the basic human need, this precious resource is being wasted, polluted and getting depleted. Water conservation includes the policies, strategies and activities to manage the natural resource of fresh water in a sustainable manner to meet the current and future human demand.

Need to Preserve

1. Demand Supply Mismatch
   • Declining availability of water: Water availability is declining at a rapid rate, globally as well as in India as it is being exploited at an unsustainable rate. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to preserve it.
   • Increasing Population: India’s population is growing and is expected to grow before stabilizing in 2050. To meet the requirements of future generations, it is important to save the critical source.
     • For ex: A NITI Aayog report projected the country’s water demand to be twice the available supply by 2030, implying severe scarcity for hundreds of millions of people.
   • Growing Urbanization: Unplanned urbanization has increased the demand for water. Further trapped heat increases the rate of surface water evaporation aggravating the water crisis. Therefore, there is a need to preserve the sources.
     • Ex: In the summer of 2019, Chennai’s reservoirs ran dry, forcing the government to truck in 10 million liters of water a day.
     • Ex: According to the WWF, by 2050, at least 30 Indian cities will face a grave water risk.
   • Agricultural demand: 70 percent of Indian rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood. It is highly dependent on monsoon which are erratic therefore, there is a need to conserve and protect freshwater supply.
     • Ex: 74 % of the area under wheat cultivation and 63 % of the area under rice cultivation faces extreme levels of water scarcity. Expected demand-supply gap of up to 570 Billion m3 by 2030 in the agriculture sector.
2. Health
   • Growing water borne disease: Poor sewage disposal mechanisms lead to most of the sewage being drained into rivers and lakes and increasing risk of waterborne diseases.
     • For example: Waterborne diseases such as cholera, acute diarrhoeal diseases, typhoid and viral hepatitis continue to be prevalent in India and have caused 10,738 deaths, over the last five years since 2017.
3. Anthropogenic
   • Climate Change: Climate change is disturbing the water supply and leading to a crisis. And, the effects are magnifying over time. Therefore, there is a need to augment the water resources.
     • For example: According to the WMO’s State of Climate Services 2021, more than 20 percent of the world’s river basins experienced either rapid increases or declines in their surface water area in 2020.
4. Political
   • To prevent conflicts: Growing inequality of water has impacted the peace of society and giving birth to many conflicts, internal as well as external.
     • For example: Non-consensus over Indo-Bangladesh Teesta water dispute compromises the long-term interest of citizens in both the nations. The growing sub national water disputes over rivers like Krishna and Cauvery.
5. Social issues
   • Increasing burden on women: The crisis of water puts women at higher risk of vulnerability. Fetching water in India has been perceived as a woman’s job for centuries and they walk miles to fetch water.
     • For example: The problem has given birth to the problem of the regressive idea of polygamy of an entire village in Maharashtra. Women are termed as water wives as a substitute to tankers.
   • Leads to increase in Inequality: Water shortage and supply demand mismatch affect the poor disproportionately thus widening the inequality.
     • For example: In the slums of Delhi, the government sends tankers once every 10 days, and each household gets only 600 liters of water, making around 15 liters per person per day. On the other hand, High-income households in Delhi consume anywhere from 250 to 600 liters of water per person daily.

WATER CONSERVATION APPROACHES

1. Traditional Approach

• Bavaria: These are unique step-wells that were once a part of the ancient networks of water storage in the cities of Rajasthan. The little rain that the region received would be diverted to manmade tanks through canals built on the hilly outskirts of cities. The water would then percolate into the ground, raising the water table and recharging a deep and intricate network of aquifers.
• Panam Keni: The Kuruma tribe (a native tribe of Wayanad, Kerala) uses a special type of well, called the Panam Keni, to store water. Wooden cylinders are made by soaking the stems of toddy palms in water for a long time so that the core rots away until only the hard-outer layer remains. These cylinders, four feet in diameter as well as depth, are then immersed in groundwater springs located in fields and forests.
• Zings: Found in Ladakh, Zings are small tanks that collect melting glacier water. A network of guiding channels brings water from the glacier to the tank. A trickle in the morning, the melting waters of the glacier turn into a flowing stream by the afternoon. The water, collected by evening, is used in the fields on the following day.
• Zabo: The Zabo or Ruza (meaning ‘impounding run-off’) system of Nagaland combines water conservation with forestry, agriculture and animal care. Rainwater that falls on forested hilltops is collected by channels that deposit the run-off water in pond-like structures created on the terraced hillsides.
• Khuls: The Khuls (channels) are designed to carry long distances the water from glaciers to villages. On reaching a village the water falls in a central tank and the use is regulated by the community. They are the lifeline of people of Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh and in Jammu too.
• Bamboo Drip Irrigation System: Practised in Meghalaya, its primary purpose is to irrigate plantations. This 200-year-old system involves 18-20 litres of water entering the bamboo pipe system every minute to irrigate the fields downhill. A brilliant drip irrigation system, it uses bamboos of various sizes and reduces the output to 20-80 drops per minute, which is splendid for betel leaf and black pepper crops.
  • The method is so efficient that it enables the water to be dropped at the base of the plant to ensure there is no runoff and wastage.
• Rejwani system: Rejwani system where water percolates through sand, settles on the gypsum layer, and is brought for use by a complex capillary system called Beri.
• Johads: Johad, a crescent shaped small check dam built from earth and rock to intercept and conserve rainwater, was thus reinvented. This helps to improve percolation and increases groundwater recharge. Use in Alwar district of Rajasthan.
• Eri: Eri (tank) of Tamil Nadu is still widely used around the State. With over a third of irrigation in the State being made possible due to Eri, the traditional water harvesting system plays an important part in the agriculture. They also have other advantages such as prevention of soil erosion, recharge of groundwater, and flood control.
• Khadin: Khadin is a water conservation system designed to store surface runoff water for the purpose of agriculture. It entails an embankment built around a slope, which collects the rainwater in an agricultural field. This helps moisten the soil and helps in preventing the loss of topsoil. Additionally, spillways are provided to ensure that excess water is drained off.

Challenges associated with conserving water in India

1. Historical and Political
   • Historical Factors: Water management was traditionally done through communities giving preference to local factors, but the British transferred the management to the government. Gradually, the community got alienated from the structures. This neglected the local needs.
     • For example: Ahar Pynes, Panam Keni, Kund, Kuhls are various structures that were built in sync with local terrains.
   • Lack of Implementation: The policies framed at central and state levels are not implemented properly, leading to either waste or pollution of water.
     • For example: Recently, NGT reprimanded UP, Delhi for filthy water flowing in canals, Yamuna, Ganga despite protection laws.
     • For example: A survey conducted by the Chennai Corporation revealed that 41,725 buildings in the city have failed to develop rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures on their premises.
   • Highly subsidized electricity: Farmers just switch on their water pumping motors and leave it running for hours as their electricity is highly subsidized. This leads to huge wastage of water.
2. Economical
   • Industrial Development: Industrial development is necessary for economic development of a country, but it might disturb the ecosystem and lead to pollution and deforestation, making conservation difficult.
     • For example: According to the Indian government, over 15,000 trees were cut in the national capital for undertaking various developmental and construction activities in the last three financial years.
     • For example: Agro Industries use groundwater on a large scale like in Kerala; Coca Cola draws around 510,000 liters of water each day, resulting in water scarcity.
3. Behavioral
   • Behavioral Issues: Water is not treated as a precious resource but as a use-and-throw commodity. People do not use it judiciously under the false belief that it will be replenished by rainwater.
     • For example: People take long showers instead of buckets, not realizing that 8 minutes of showering uses up to 80 liters of water.

• Pani Panchayat, Orissa: The primary objective was to improve the planning and development process for the state’s water resource.
• Paani Bachao, Paisa Kamao: In Punjab, where rampant tube well irrigation is causing the water table to fall drastically, the World Bank helped the state government to save groundwater. It incentivizes farmers to reduce groundwater usage.
• Recycling: Chennai has become the first Indian city to recycle its wastewater at scale to meet the non-drinking water needs of its industries.
• Root zone watering (SWAR), Telangana: It involves storing of water in overhead tanks and sending it through a small diameter pipe. SWAR uses a very less amount of water and there is zero wastage of water.

International Best Practices

• Cape Town, South Africa: In the last 15 years, they have managed to reduce their overall water consumption, even when population has increased. Some technologies in place include, leak detection piping, adjusted water pressure, replacement of faulty water meters and improve parks irrigation practices.
• United Kingdom: In the UK, water metering technology enhances the way residents can adjust their water usage using online databases. These smart meters give citizens an inside look on what their water is being used for and how much is utilized.
• South Korea: The South Korean government started a project in 2004 called Songdo, which is built on an artificial island and constructed to provide “green space” like rooftop vegetation. They also have installed rainwater collection systems.
• Singapore: Singapore has no original source of water. Rainwater is collected through a network of drains, canals, rivers, reservoirs and then it is treated for drinking water supply. Apart from this, to manage water, the country adopted desalination.
• Israel: The country recycles 85 percent of waste water and most of its agricultural needs are met with recycled water. Instead of flooding the fields with humongous amounts of water, drip irrigation is deployed where water is targeted directly onto the plant’s roots.

Way Forward

Post-independence, the population of the country has increased and is expected to continue upto 2050 by which it will stabilize. The economy of the country is also increasing, therefore there is a need to use water judiciously. There is a need at all levels to save water.

1. Individual and Community Level
   • Reusing Water: Rainwater harvesting and recycled wastewater will reduce scarcity and ease pressures on groundwater and other natural water bodies.
     • For example: Israel started using recycled, slightly brackish water for irrigation. Today, 80% of Israel’s wastewater is recycled for agriculture use.
   • Awareness: Awareness is essential to solving the water crisis. To meet the future demands, it is necessary to radically reform all forms of consumption.
   • Sustainable water management: Restoring and reviving traditional water harvesting structures such as wetlands, lakes through community-led approach will help conserve water.
   • Drip irrigation: With large agricultural output, excess water consumption for food production depletes the overall water table. Drip irrigation reduces water wastage and also ensures food security. Therefore, community led approach is needed in field too.

• Vegetative Measures: It includes vegetative cover, plant cover, mulching, vegetative hedges, grass land management, vetiver fencing, agro-forestry, etc.
• Production Measures: It includes interventions aimed at increasing the productivity of land like mixed cropping, strip cropping, cover cropping, crop rotations, cultivation of shrubs and herbs, contour cultivation conservation tillage, land levelling, use of improved verity of seeds, horticulture, etc.
• Protection Measures: It includes landslide control, gully plugging, runoff collection, etc. Adoption of all the interventions mentioned above should be done strictly in accordance with the characteristics of the land taken for management.

1. Water Management
   • Rain water harvesting: It is the collection and storage of rain, rather than allowing it to run off. Rainwater is collected from a roof-like surface and redirected to a tank, cistern, deep pit (well, shaft, or borehole), aquifer, or a reservoir with percolation, so that it seeps down and restores the groundwater.
   • Ground water recharge: Groundwater replenishment happens through direct recharge and in-lieu recharge. Water used for direct recharge most often comes from flood flows, water conservation, recycled water, desalination, and water transfers.
   • Economic use of water: Avoidance of affluence in use of water at individual and community levels may be the major concern for water management in the years to come.

Biomass Management: Major intervention areas for biomass management are eco-preservation, biomass regeneration, forest management & conservation, plant protection & social forestry, and increased productivity of animals.