Water conservation

M J Sharma (IFS)
Year 2013 has been earmarked as a water conservation year.  The celebration of the water year rings alarm bells for all stake holders as water is emerging a major problem for drinking, irrigation and other infrastructure development activities as the problem of water shortage is growing rapidly all over the world with the explosion of population and deforestation. It is beyond the comprehension of a common man that in the near future there will be a acute shortage of water e.g. by 2050 water demand will increase sevenfold when the world population will touch the mark of 10 billion. The situation has become grim due to over extraction, misuse and legal water mining as it has pushed the water table ever low and if this continues, days are not far off when we have to heavily invest to tap the ground water besides irreparable loss to the ground water resource. The various efforts are being made by Govt. and non Govt. Organisation to focus the attention of people towards the problem of water shortage by way of organising seminars, symposium and giving wide publicity through print & electronic media by highlighting the  alarming situation to be faced in the near future and to mitigate the same by adopting techniques & methods like conservation, recharging of ground water by harvesting the rain water,  judicious use of water, preserving the perennial  source of water i.e. glaciers, water lakes, ponds and keeping our water bodies free from pollution for maintaining sustainable supply of water. The stress has been laid to protect and propagate the forest cover and above all to grow trees in every nook and corner.
The writing on the walls are very clear that humanity is going  to face a great disaster due to the shortage of water, until & unless some concrete/innovative steps mixed with traditional techniques of conserving & preserving water are not planned & taken up because most of the water which is available on the earth is not useable or available for use so the layman perception that there is a plenty of water and is freely available is not based on facts for empirical studies. Most of the water on earth is salty one and only small proportion is fresh water and out of that, most of either is frozen, are lying deep underground.
The celebration of the water year is good gesture to peep in to the problem but to deal with the shortage of water requires much more as already situation has slipped from our hands at present, there is huge shortage of water and whatsoever water is available to for drinking purpose is contaminated and doing much harm than good. To surmount this problem, the very first thing is to create educational awareness among the masses and to organize the people into various water harvester/user groups. From the distribution of water table and the availability of rain water, it is crystal clear that one of the main sources to fulfil the future requirement is to harvest and artificial recharge of ground water. This technique is cheap and simple to do besides an excellent way to preserve the water for prosperity. There are evidences that water can be preserved for longer period & that too purified. The various techniques of harvesting and  recharging are gully plugging, construction of ponds, bunding of Nallas by constructing embankments in the shape of earthen sand and concrete dams along with harvesting of roof water.
The next thing to do is to take the plantation drive seriously and sincerely by providing adequate funding and organising locals for taking up plantation activities and its maintenance, protection & sharing of usufructs. It can be done through public participation wherein Government has already taken initiative and various forest Committees have been formulated and  creating plantation force of the people living in and around the forest. These committees need to be revamped as lethergy  has crept in their working over the year and hampering their performance whereas the concept of planting force has to be initiated afresh. The deforestation which is going at alarming rate all over the world especially in the developing countries  needs to be arrested quickly.
The third thing to do is to involve religion in the preservation and conservation of water.     In all the religions water has been given  the status of God or Demigod and is given religions sanctity as none of the religion ceremony can be completed without the use of water i.e taking a bath, wash-up, oblation, baptising ceremony, kumbpooja (Earthern pot full of water) and water is given as charity on many occasions.  The religious bodies need to be involved in the propagation of this noble common task in to reality, which will make the things easier and speedy.  This indicates that the religions have played a vital role in the preservation and conservation of water and in future its role will be vital and of prime importance.
* Need & techniques of water harvesting & artificial recharge of ground water.
The population explosion is going to be a biggest catastrophe by 2050 when the population of the world will reach its crescendo i.e. 10-12 billion, rapid deforestation, followed by desertification & speedy disposal of rain water to the sea is really a matter of worry some  and an uphill task.
Conservation – the only way
The situation which has emerged overall the world and particularly in our country, it is perceived that the best way to combat this situation is to follow the conservation approach as it is well said that “prevention is better than cure”. This need to be done with the use of modern science and technology and the infrastructure available such as ICT (Information Communication Technology) tools. Urban local bodies can use ICT tools to monitor water sources and reservoirs, keep track of raw water treatment plant and storage, monitor the pipeline distribution, sewerage and drainage network and waste water treatment. Apart from conservation, a lot more can be done by using ICT tools;
* For the metering of flow of water, its quantum and quality.
* For billing, tariff collection, grievance redress, asset management etc. by using smart and advanced automated meter.
* Use of the tool will be useful for industry, agriculture, domestic users as well as the government.
* The full scale use of IC tools can be used as 50% saving of water as well as revenues.
The conservation practices can only be successful if the gravity of situation is made to understood to the people of all walks of life especially the elite one, who are using water profusely  and perfunctorily without paying any heed to the problem being faced by others and the catastrophe in waiting. Somebody has rightly said that the next war will be on water. Let us understand the gravity of situation and act sincerely and promptly to save the humanity from the colossal catastrophe.
(The author is Addl. Pr. Chief Conservator of Forests)

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