Abundance to Scarcity of Water — Let’s Reverse it
Traditionally water was viewed as a most abundant resource. With this copiousness of water human being ignored for a long time in the path of development. It also sidelined the ample, eloquent awareness are available in the ancient scribes citing the importance of water. Though, water could lead to third world war has become as old as an adage of yore, in the contemporary world everyone is exploring the best suitable possibilities to manage the available water resources. Especially, for a nation like India that has 18% of the world’s population but only 4% of the world’s renewable water resources — water has now become a serious matter of governance. Now, it realizes that water happens to be a limited resource whereas the demand for the same is increasing with time. Spiraling growth in population, rapid industrialization as well as urbanization, depletion of groundwater source and increasing water pollution levels put pressure on the available water resources and pose a serious challenge for sustainable management of water. Water available per person is dependent on the population of the country and for India; water availability per capita is reducing progressively due to the increase in population. The average annual per capita water availability in the years 2001 and 2011 was assessed as 1816 cubic meters and 1545 cubic meters, respectively, which may reduce further to 1340 and 1140 in the years 2025 and 2050 respectively. Annual per-capita water availability of less than 1700 cubic meters is considered as water stressed condition, whereas annual per-capita water availability below 1000 cubic meters is considered as a water scarcity condition. Due to high temporal and spatial variation of precipitation, the water availability of any region of the country is much below the national average and can be considered as water scarce.
According to Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) as on 31st March 2013 total groundwater drafting 253.06 BCM out of which Domestic and industrial uses 24.76 BCM and rest is used for irrigation purpose. The average annual water potential in India has been assessed as 1869 billion cubic meters (BCM). Due to topographical and other factors, the utilizable water availability is limited to 1137 BCM per annum, comprising of 690 BCM of surface water and 447 BCM of replenishable groundwater. According to CGWB 2013; UP tops the list of groundwater drafting 52.76% followed by Punjab 34.81%. Comparative Statement of ‘Over-exploited’ Assessment units shows Punjab worst affected followed by Rajasthan and Haryana. This shows the urgent need to harvest rainwater in its purest possible form and recharge the groundwater.
Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has prepared a conceptual document titled “Master Plan for Artificial Recharge to Ground Water — 2013” to augment the groundwater resources. The Master Plan envisages construction of about 1.11 crore rainwater harvesting and artificial recharge structures in urban and rural areas to harness 85 BCM of water. Apart from Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) Government of India has released Rs. 13846 Crore funds for “Rain Water Harvesting Schemes” between 2015–16 and 2018–19. Model Building Bye-Laws, 2016 circulated by Ministry of Urban Development include provisions for Rainwater Harvesting that stresses upon mandatory storing of water runoff including rainwater in all new buildings on plots of 100 sq.m. Barring the Manipur, Sikkim Mizoram and Lakshadweep, all the States and UTs have incorporated these provisions in their respective building bye-laws. However, another area to focus is rejuvenation and preservation of wetlands. There is no silver bullet to solve our water problems. But if we can find a way to harness the passion and energy of everyone and bring together our efforts in true collaboration, we can create meaningful change.
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Originally published at enviroannotations.blogspot.com.
