Importance of Water Resource Management
This article briefly discusses water resource management and way to overcome water shortage by conserving it by various methods. It also emphasis on the importance of water management and rainwater harvesting.
Water Management
Water is an important resource and it is considered one of the important wealth factors of every country. We won't waste something that we buy, just because water is an easily available and a free resource, we are not caring much about saving it. We should remember that we are already moving towards the day that we need to buy water for all our daily needs; maybe, as usual, this won't affect the rich people who concern about the fancy water fountain in their home garden, but less fortunate ones may be worried about quenching for their thirst.
You might be heard or even you yourself know how much we enjoyed playing with water when we were kids. The fact was that we absolutely had no idea to care about it. I mean who cares about water? But now we should care because we are paying even to drink it. All we need to do is to save the 1% of potable water and waste the rest as you have got plenty of it. Know the importance
How to save
Conservation of water is much needed and has been an essential practice these days. India has faced scarcity of water many times in past years, especially in the southern region. First of all, we need to figure where we use water more.Why rain water harvesting?
India is a country which has rainfall and glacial snow melt from the Himalayas as the main resource for fresh water. Here, the north part of India gets the water from Himalayan rivers but the southern part almost completely depends on seasonal rainfall for water. The actual problem today is the climate change that is altering the water cycle in the worst way possible. Tamilnadu is an Indian state where they have so many issues with water and it's the first state to make rainwater harvesting mandatory. Fast rate of urbanization reduces an availability of open surface for the natural recharge of groundwater and so the government made it compulsory for every building to avoid groundwater depletion.
The rainwater that falls on the roof of the buildings mostly goes to waste or drainage in urban. Instead, we can collect that relatively pure water that falls from the sky and use it for other washing/cleaning purposes. The intensity of rain varies from place to place, therefore rain is not distributed uniformly in all places and also it occurs only in specific monsoons. Rainwater harvesting is the best method for water conservation. It is very important because of fast urbanization and over usage of groundwater. The collected rainwater can be used for flushing toilets, laundry and also in irrigation.Water Management and India
Due to the change in lifestyle and increasing population, India needs to produce a lot of food which needs a lot of water. So the Indian government should take some serious steps on water conservation. They should frame some water management policies that should enforce fair usage of water. Some countries in the world use modern techniques to extract fresh water from air, fog, and sea. We all aware of Israel's water crisis, but now that desert country can produce more fresh water than it actually requires. But here in India, rivers became gutters and pond is where we dump all the wastes. To conserve water, all we need is good governance and planning.
We all know about the acute water crisis in Shimla, which can be said as Cape Town of Himalayas. This city has faced an acute water shortage because of increased tourism and poor water management. All the residents were barely getting drinking water and at some places, the sewer water was supplied. This water crisis problem is not new to them, they are facing it since long back. It even got worse since the city was full of tourists during summer and so the locals have to wait in long lines to get some water. This is because of increasing number of tourist, climate change and no proper distribution system for water where some areas receive regular water supply while others were starving for water. It's not just Shimla, many places in India have the same problem, even in the south.
The main reason for the water crisis in India is too many people try to access too little water.
Government and some leading NGOs are conducting various programs to spread awareness about the water resource management. One such example is "Swachh Ganga Mission" focused to clean river Ganga. The companies which produce carbonated drinks and mineral water should also be kept under vigil as they should not over exploit groundwater resources. Conclusion
There are at least hundred ways to save the water. Remember that if we want to save water, we must stop polluting it. The largest source of water pollution in India is untreated sewage. Water pollution affects the humans directly when the drinking water is contaminated. There won't be enough water to drink if it's contaminated. Polluted water causes severe damages to ecosystem, human and animal health. When we consume that water, it causes deadly diseases like Guinea worm disease, Typhoid, diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera.
India has so many cultural practices that we may even think weird but they always had a meaning. Every temple had lakes and tanks that store water for summer. It served as groundwater re charger and also was the best example of ancient rainwater harvesting. We know ancient Indians had enough water, but still, north Indians had the practice to choose their bride based on the level of water she saves after cleaning her face. That was a culture, but with a clear meaning of saving may be not only the water but every other resource.
Save water so that it can save you!! When we say water is life then conservation is future!! Let our future generations see the world as we saw or even better than that.
Water is a precious commodity and with the groundwater table going down and down with time it is high time that we must use this important material very sparingly and intelligently.
Many people do not understand the importance of water in our life. They think that plenty of water is there in the rivers and oceans and unnecessarily people are crying water - water. It is not so. Our rivers are drying up in summer and are not able to supply the water for drinking purposes. The big ponds also suffice the delivery of drinking water for a few months only. The sea water is very saline and is not potable. It requires huge costs to convert it to drinking water and transport it to the needy consumer.
In spite of many efforts we are not very successful in harvesting the rain water. The most of the rain water is flowing down the rivers and mixing in the sea to become equally saline which is again not potable.
This is imperative that we must conserve water.