World Water Day, which falls on March 22, is a global initiative backed by the United Nations, and has been observed every year since 1993. Under different themes, the attempt has been to raise awareness among stakeholders about the importance of freshwater. The theme this year is “Water for Peace”. As everyone knows, there was a time when clean water was available in wells, ponds, streams, rivers and other sources, but the situation is vastly different now. There is a problem of water availability with respect to quantity or quality.
India too faces problems
This water crisis may be physical or economic based on multiple factors such as rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, unsustainable agricultural practices, climate change, erratic rainfall patterns, water overuse and inefficient water management, pollution, inadequate infrastructure, a lack of ‘belongingness’ among stakeholders, runoff due to high rain along with soil erosion and sedimentation. Water scarcity leads to the poor functioning of ecosystems, threatens food and water security, and, ultimately, affects peace. According to the World Resources Institute, 17 countries face ‘extremely high’ levels of water stress which is threatening to result in conflict, unrest and peace among people. India is not an exception to these problems. In India, water availability is already low enough to be categorised as water stressed, and is expected to reduce further to 1341m3 by 2025 and 1140m3 by 2050. Also, 72% of all water withdrawals are for use in agriculture, 16% by municipalities for households and services, and 12% by industries.
In almost every State and in the main cities of India, there is groundwater table depletion. The example of Bengaluru is one prominent example. In Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana, the ratio of groundwater consumption to availability is 172%, 137%, 137% and 133%, respectively, which is cause for alarm. In contrast, in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, it is 77%, 74%. 67%, 57%, and 53%, respectively. Most perennial rivers/streams now have intermittent flows or have run dry. In most areas after April-May, there is Less water availability even for drinking and other uses. Springs in India’s hilly areas are almost dry. In India, the total number of water bodies is 5,56,601 whose irrigation potential covered 62,71,180 hectares. But, due to a lack of or inappropriate catchment treatment measures, bad design and poor maintenance of water bodies, most of the reservoirs/waterbodies/wetlands have silted up, resulting in reduced storage capacity and lower efficacy.
In most areas, tubewell density and networks have increased. Groundwater discharge is now more than groundwater recharge. The letting out of sewerage water and other sources of grey water into water bodies and rivers is causing a deterioration in water quality. There is a lack of proper surface and groundwater management. Rainfed regions in India which comprise over 48% of land area produces nearly 45% of the gross agricultural product.
So, a large amount of India’s food grains is from the rainfed region. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, recently laid stress on having a judicious mix of ‘traditional indigenous and new technologies to improve soil health and conserve water’ and pitched for the efficient use of every drop of water. Hence, paying attention to these points is important.
The vital role of rainwater harvesting
Enhancing water availability with respect to quantity and quality and blue and green water is vital since water is more than just a basic human right. Water is also an instrument of peace-building and enhances the overall quality of life. Promoting sustainable agricultural production, ensuring water security and maintaining environmental integrity are increasingly becoming important issues. This can only be possible by adopting different resource conservation measures in general and rainwater harvesting (in-situ and ex-situ) and ensuring roof top rainwater harvesting in particular. Rain water harvesting (RWH) enables resilience against water scarcity and drought by augmenting recharge and aiding irrigation. The optimum use of surface water by large-scale RWH structures, conjunctive use with groundwater And safe reuse of waste water are the only viable solutions to boost and maintain the current level of food grain production.
The government’s emphasis on ‘per drop more crop’, ‘Gaon ka pani gaon mein’, ‘Khet ka pani khet mein’, ‘Har Medh per ped’ under various programmes such as the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), watershed management, Mission Amrit Sarovar and the Jal Shakti Abhiyan programmes. There is an emphasis on water conservation and rainwater harvesting, rejuvenation of waterbodies/tanks/wetlands, recharge of borewell and other recharge structures, watershed development and intensive afforestation. But there is the need for a protocol of the revival of ponds/waterbodies (it is unavailable right now). To tackle all these problems there is a great need to study the condition of every waterbody, its water availability, water quality and the state of ecosystem services it supports. (This writer has done some of these in Mewat, Haryana, NCT of Delhi and Odisha.) There is a need also to create more waterbodies and their revival in every village by looking into the catchment-storage-command area of each waterbody.
Additional steps
There is a need also for these additional interventions to ensure ‘water for peace’: monitoring the groundwater table; the reclamation of the water quality of groundwater, rivers and waterbodies; the pricing of water use; having a circular water economy; ensuring efficient irrigation techniques such as integrating water resources with micro-irrigations systems and IOT based automation; having integrated water resource management; installing water meters to reduce water use for domestic purposes; no free electricity, having a convergence and linkages of line departments; fostering community awareness and peoples’ participation, awareness campaigns about water conservation; ensuring groundwater use neutrality; land neutrality, growing low water requirement crops; optimal crop plan having integrated farming system models; building resilience against climate change and ensuring the needs of a growing population by adopting an integrated and inclusive approach to manage water which is a finite resource; reducing losses from water distribution systems, and ensuring safe wastewater reuse, desalination and appropriate water allocation, tubewell/borewell development and finally, enabling the integration and collaboration of research, industry and academia to implement different developed and new technologies.
With these solutions, the theme of World Water Day 2024 can be strengthened and India can become water secure. These are also steps to ensure a more peaceful world.
Susama Sudhishri is Professor and Principal Scientist, Water Technology Centre, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, and an expert in soil and water conservation engineering, watershed management, water harvesting and conservation, precision irrigation management
