Water resources

The water cycle, through evaporation and precipitation, maintains hydrological

systems which form rivers and lakes and support in a variety of aquatic
ecosystems.
Wetlands are intermediate forms between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
and contain species of plants and animals that are highly moisture dependent.
All aquatic ecosystems are used by a large number of people for their daily
needs such as drinking water, washing, cooking, watering animals, and irrigating
fields.
The world depends on a limited quantity of fresh water. Water covers 70% of
the earth’s surface but only 3% of this is fresh water. Of this, 2% is in polar ice
caps and only 1% is usable water in rivers, lakes and subsoil aquifers.

Only a fraction of this can be actually used. At a global level 70% of water is
used for agriculture about 25% for industry and only 5% for domestic use.
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 This varies in different countries and industrialized countries use a greater
percentage for industry. India uses 90% for agriculture, 7% for industry
and 3% for domestic use.
 One of the greatest challenges facing the world in this century is the need
to rethink the overall management of water resources.
 The world population has passed the 6 billion mark. Based on the
proportion of young people in developing countries, this will continue to
increase significantly during the next few decades.
 This places enormous demands on the world’s limited freshwater supply.
The total annual freshwater withdrawals today are estimated at 3800 cubic
kilometres, twice as much as just 50 years ago (World Commission on
Dams, 2000).
 Studies indicate that a person needs a minimum of 20 to 40 liters of water
per day for drinking and sanitation.
 More than one billion people worldwide have no access to clean water,
and to many more, supplies are unreliable.
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 Local conflicts are already spreading to states. Eg. Karnataka and Tamil
Nadu over the waters of the Krishna.
 India is expected to face critical levels of water stress by 2025. At the global
level 31 countries are already short of water and by 2025 there will be 48
countries facing serious water shortages.
 The UN has estimated that by the year 2050, 4 billion people will be
seriously affected by water shortages.
 This will lead to multiple conflicts between countries over the sharing of
water. Around 20 major cities in India face chronic or interrupted water
shortages.
 There are 100 countries that share the waters of 13 large rivers and lakes.
 The upstream countries could starve the downstream nations leading to
political unstable areas across the world. Examples are Ethiopia, which is
upstream on the Nile and Egypt, which is downstream and highly dependent
on the Nile.
 International accords that will look at a fair distribution of water in such
areas will become critical to world peace. India and Bangladesh already have
a negotiated agreement on the water use of the Ganges.
 Overutilization and pollution of surface and groundwater
 With the growth of human population there is an increasing need for larger
amounts of water to fulfil a variety of basic needs.

 Overutilization of water occurs at various levels. Most people use more

water than they really need. Most of us waste water during a bath by using
a shower or during washing of clothes.

 Many agriculturists use more water than necessary to grow crops. There
are many ways in which farmers can use less water without reducing yields
such as the use of drip irrigation systems.

 Agriculture also pollutes surface water and underground water stores by

the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

 Methods such as the use of biomass as fertilizer and non toxic pesticides
such as neem products and using integrated pest management systems
reduces the agricultural pollution of surface and ground water.
 CASE STUDY-Water pollution - Nepal
 The Narayani River of Nepal has been polluted by factories located on its
bank. This has endangered fish, dolphins, crocodiles and other flora and
fauna of the region.

NOTE;
Global climate change:
 Changes in climate at a global level caused by increasing air pollution have
now begun to affect our climate.
 In some regions global warming and the El Nino winds have created
unprecedented storms. In other areas, they lead to long droughts.
Everywhere the ‘greenhouse effect’ due to atmospheric pollution is
leading to increasingly erratic and unpredictable climatic effects. This has
seriously affected regional hydrological conditions.
 Floods
• Floods have been a serious environmental hazard for centuries. However, the
havoc raised by rivers overflowing their banks has become progressively more
damaging, as people have deforested catchments and intensified use of river
flood plains that once acted as safety valves.
• Wetlands in flood plains are nature’s flood control systems into which overfilled
rivers could spill and act like a temporary sponge holding the water, and
preventing fast flowing water from damaging surrounding land.
• Deforestation in the Himalayas causes floods that year after year kill people,
damage crops and destroy homes in the Ganges and its tributaries and the
Bramhaputra. Rivers change their course during floods and tons of valuable soil
is lost to the sea.
• As the forests are degraded, rainwater no longer percolates slowly into the
subsoil but runs off down the mountainside bearing large amounts of topsoil.
This blocks rivers temporarily but gives way as the pressure mounts allowing
enormous quantities of water to wash suddenly down into the plains below.
There, rivers swell, burst their banks and flood waters spread to engulf peoples’
farms and homes.
 Drought
• In most arid regions of the world the rains are unpredictable. This leads to
periods when there is a serious scarcity of water to drink, use in farms, or
provide for urban and industrial use.
• Drought prone areas are thus faced with irregular periods of famine.
Agriculturists have no income in these bad years, and as they have no steady
income, they have a constant fear of droughts. India has ‘Drought Prone Areas
Development Programs’, which are used in such areas to buffer the effects of
droughts. Under these schemes, people are given wages in bad years to build
roads, minor irrigation works and plantation programs.
• Drought has been a major problem in our country especially in arid regions. It
is an unpredictable climatic condition and occurs due to the failure of one or
more monsoons. It varies in frequency in different parts of our country.
• While it is not feasible to prevent the failure of the monsoon, good
environmental management can reduce its ill effects. The scarcity of water
during drought years affects homes, agriculture and industry. It also leads to
food shortages and malnutrition which especially affects children.
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 In years when the monsoon is adequate, we use up the good supply of water without
trying to conserve it and use the water judiciously.

 Thus during a year when the rains are poor, there is no water even for drinking in
the drought area.

 One of the factors that worsens the effect of drought is deforestation. Once hill
slopes are denuded of forest cover the rainwater rushes down the rivers and is lost.

 Forest cover permits water to be held in the area permitting it to seep into the
ground. This charges the underground stores of water in natural aquifers.

 This can be used in drought years if the stores have been filled during a good
monsoon.

 If water from the underground stores is overused, the water table drops and
vegetation suffers. This soil and water management and afforestation are long-term
measures that reduce the impact of droughts.
 Water for Agriculture and Power Generation
 India’s increasing demand for water for intensive irrigated agriculture, for
generating electricity, and for consumption in urban and industrial centers, has
been met by creating large dams.
 Irrigated areas increased from 40 million ha. in 1900 to 100 million ha. in 1950
and to 271 million ha. by 1998. Dams support 30 to 40% of this area.
 Although dams ensure a year round supply of water for domestic use, provide
extra water for agriculture, industry, hydropower generation,they have several
serious environmental problems.
 They alter river flows, change nature’s flood control mechanisms such as
wetlands and flood plains, and destroy the lives of local people and the habitats
of wild plant and animal species.
 Irrigation to support cash crops like sugarcane produces an unequal distribution
of water.
 Large landholders on the canals get the lion’s share of water, while poor, small
farmers get less and are seriously affected.
 Sustainable water management
 ‘Save water’campaigns are essential to make people everywhere aware of the
dangers of water scarcity.
 A number of measures need to be taken for the better management of the
world’s water resources. These include measures such as:
 Building several small reservoirs instead of,few mega projects.
Develop small catchment dams and protect wetlands.
 Soil management, micro catchment development and afforestation permits
recharging of underground aquifers thus reducing the need for large dams.
 Treating and recycling municipal waste water for agricultural use.
 Preventing leakages from dams and canals.
 Preventing loss in Municipal pipes.
 Effective rain water harvesting in urban environments.
 Water conservation measures in agriculture such as using drip irrigation.
 Pricing water at its real value makes people use it more responsibly and
efficiently and reduces water wasting.
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 Effective rain water harvesting in urban environments.

 Water conservation measures in agriculture such as using drip irrigation.

 Pricing water at its real value makes people use it more responsibly and
efficiently and reduces water wasting.

 In deforested areas where land has been degraded, soil management by

bunding along the hill slopes and making ‘nala’ plugs,can help retain moisture
and make it possible to re-vegetate degraded areas.

 Managing a river system is best done by leaving its course as undisturbed as

possible.

 Dams and canals lead to major floods in the monsoon and the drainage of
wetlands seriously affects areas that get flooded when there is high rainfall.
 Dams
 Today there are more than 45,000 large dams around the world, which play an
important role in communities and economies that harness these water
resources for their economic development.
 Current estimates suggest some 30-40% of irrigated land worldwide relies on
dams.
 Hydropower, another contender for the use of stored water, currently supplies
19% of the world’s total electric power supply and is used in over 150
countries.
 The world’s two most populous countries – China and India –have built around
57% of the world’s large dams.

Dams problems ;
 Fragmentation and physical transformation of rivers.

 Serious impacts on riverine ecosystems.

 Social consequences of large dams due to displacement of people.

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 Water logging and salinisation of surrounding lands.

 Dislodging animal populations, damaging their habitat and cutting off their migration
routes.

 Fishing and travel by boat disrupted.

 The emission of green house gases from reservoirs due to rotting vegetation and carbon
inflows from the catchment is a recently identified impact.

 Large dams have had serious impacts on the lives, livelihoods, cultures and spiritual
existence of indigenous and tribal peoples.

 They have suffered disproportionately from the negative impacts of dams and often been
excluded from sharing the benefits.

 In India, of the 16 to 18 million people displaced by dams, 40 to 50% were tribal people,
who account for only 8% of our nation’s one billion people.
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 Conflicts over dams have heightened in the last two decades because of their
social and environmental impacts and failure to achieve targets for sticking to
their costs as well as achieving promised benefits.
 Recent examples show how failure to provide a transparent process that
includes effective participation of local people has prevented affected people
from playing an 30 Environmental Studies for Undergraduate Courses active
role in debating the pros and cons of the project and its alternatives.
 The loss of traditional,local controls over equitable distribution remains a
major source of conflict.
Note:
 In India, a national assessment of dam projects cleared in the 1980s and 90s
shows that in 90% of cases the project authorities have not fulfilled the
environmental conditions under which environmental clearance was given by
the GOI under the EPA of 1986.