TWO BILLION PEOPLE ARE DYING FOR IT

Rajan Nair*

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Water is a major component of the environment and the human beings occupy the centre-stage in it. Water is needed for agricultural production, for drinking and other purposes by the people and animals and for municipal and commercial use. Water is an essential input for all industries. Energy production and navigation are dependent on water. This all-pervasive need for water has brought into focus the fragility of environment associated with the fulfilment of these requirements and the need to guard against it.

The status of water in the environment is unique. Unevenly distributed, water is a scarce economic resource. The challenge in water resource development is to balance the needs for development with environmental health for sustainable growth.

Availability

It is hard to believe that the earth on which water seems to be the dominant element should ever face its shortage. But the reality is that 97.3 per cent of its reserve on earth is saline water. Only 2.7 per cent is fresh water. Of that nearly 70 per cent is frozen in the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland and most of the balance is present either as soil moisture or lies in deep underground aquifers as ground water not accessible to human use. As a result, less than 1 per cent of all the water on earth is accessible for direct human use. This water is found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this tiny fraction of the planet’s water is renewed by nature’s water cycle.

Distribution

Water resources are very unevenly distributed. At one extreme are the deserts with almost no rainfall. On the other hand the humid regions can receive several metres of rainfall in a year. Most of the flow is in a limited number of rivers. Even in parts of the world with large river flows, there can be a great variation in the availability of water. Most of the annual water flow may come as floods following heavy rains or the melting of snow. Unless stored in reservoirs, the water flows to the sea, sometimes causing even seasonal flooding. Later in the year, the same areas may experience drought.

Water requirement for agricultural production and domestic needs like drinking, cooking, sanitation and municipal services on the one hand and for trade, commerce and industries on the other constitutes the bulk of its total consumption. The requirement is closely related to population, demand for food, production of non-food agricultural and industrial items, output and for improvement in the quality of life and for preserving ecology of the nation. Fresh water is a renewable but a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment.

Water scarcity is caused by population growth, environmental change and degradation and the unequal distribution of water resources. Water is getting scarce due to rising population, rapid urbanisation and growing industrial demands.

The world’s population in 2003 is estimated at 6.45 billion. Nearly 170 million people are being added to it annually and will increase upto 10 billion by the year 2025. The high growth ratio of population is posing a serious threat to the future prospects of human well-being. If the population continues to grow at this rate, it will perhaps be too large to be supported by the limited resources of the earth in a few decades.

Water scarcities are likely to occur sooner in regions where its per capita availability is already very low following the high population growth. The demand gets more and more serious if its per capita demand keeps growing up following changes in its consumption pattern. People dump wastes, untreated sewage and chemical discharges which pollute the sources of water like the rivers, lakes, ponds and the underground reserves. The ever-increasing demand for water has resulted in two billion people craving for this fundamental resources worldwide.

Indian Scenario

India has 2.45 per cent of the world’s land resources and 4 per cent of its fresh water resources. Twelve per cent areas of the country receive an average rainfall of less than 610 million metres (mm) annually. Only 8 per cent areas receive more than 2500 mm of water. Cherrapunji in the eastern part of Meghalaya receives 11,000 mm of rainfall while western Rajasthan receives only 100 mm. The variability of the rainfall from month to month and year to year for the same place is very high. Even low rainfall areas, especially in some parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan, are prone to occasional high intensity storms.

More than 90 per cent of the annual runoff in peninsular rivers and over 80 per cent of the annual runoff in the Himalayan rivers occurs between June and September. Many of the small rivers totally dry up during the summer. The depletion of forests has further aggravated the problem.

Rajasthan has only 1 per cent of the country’s water resources. Even those who live in areas of high rainfall often face drought. For instance, Cherrapunji in Meghalaya receives the highest level of mean rainfall recorded in the world and yet, because of heavy seasonal rainfall and the nature of topography, much of the runoff cannot be retained. The region now suffers from excessive flooding for 3 or 4 months and frequent droughts during the rest of the year.

India is the second largest country after China in terms of population. The Indians numbered about 108.8 crore in 2003, accounting for nearly 17 per cent of the world’s population. India has roughly about 4 per cent of the world’s fresh water resources to support 17 per cent of the total world population. It is evident that a large number of Indians are facing acute water shortage. The number of those with no access to safe water supply and sanitation is unacceptably high.

Solution

Of late, measures have been initiated for conservation and management of the available water resources in the country such as the move to interlink the rivers. The Centre has set up a task force for this. Due to the uneven distribution of rainfall, some parts of the country are affected by the fury of floods while some others reel under severe drought. In such a scenario, inter-basin transfer of water from the surplus Himalayan rivers to the deficient peninsular rivers through interlinking has been thought of as a viable solution. The Periyar Project, Parambikulam Aliyar Project, Kurnool-Cuddaph canal and inter sub-basin transfer (Beas to Sutlej at Bhakra) are some of the notable examples of inter-basin transfers.

At a micro level, rainwater harvesting is also being taken up. Some State governments have already amended building by-laws to make rain harvesting mandatory for new buildings. To some extent wastewater is also being recycled for use.

The Centre is actively involved in and preventing further pollution of the rivers as can be seen from the activities of the National River Conservation Authority which is implementing the Action Plans for de-polluting the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Gomati rivers. The Lake Conservation Plan at the national level aims at conserving various urban water bodies.

The main component of the Ganga Action Plan is the diversion of sewage flowing into the river to other locations for treatment and its conversion into a source of energy. As against a target of creating infrastructure capable of intercepting, diverting and treating 873 million litres per day (mld) of domestic waste, infrastructure capable of treating 835 mld of municipal sewage has been created. Out of the 261 schemes sanctioned, 258 have been completed.

The Ganga Action Plan Phase II has been merged with the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP). The expanded NRCP now covers 141 towns located along 22 inter-state rivers in 14 States. The total cost of the schemes is Rs.2013 crore. Under this Action Plan pollution abatement works are being taken up in 29 towns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. About 618 mld of sewage is targeted to be intercepted, diverted and treated.

Under the Yamuna Action Plan pollution abatement works are being taken up in 21 towns in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi at a cost of Rs. 496 crore. Similarly, under the Gomati Action Plan, 269 mld of sewage is proposed to be treated.

The people by and large have also to come forward in water conservation and supplement the governmental efforts. They have to develop a proper civic sense to do nothing that would spoil the element so vital for our survival.(PIB Features)

*Chief Engineer Monitoring (South), Central Water Commission, Bangalore