Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink!
Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink!
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Unless you go through it, you won’t know what it feels likes: not to have water. It’s the most basic human physiological need without which we might not exist.
The acute water crisis in Chennai brought to the world’s attention a matter of concern that 600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress in the country.
Under drought-like conditions, the groundwater levels of 21 major Indian cities are running towards zero in the very next year of 2020, affecting 100 million people.
No single person is to blame; the common man, the government, the industrial people or the farmers, every one of us has contributed equally and significantly to add up to this day. For instance, the common man did not consider performing rainwater harvesting or ran the taps till dry; the government covered and hence, killed water bodies in the name of urban development and visible infrastructure; the industrial people polluted the ocean and sea with their industrial waste, and not cared to release treated water; or perhaps, the farmer was not aware of irrigation techniques that require lesser amounts of water, let’s say sugarcane requires micro-irrigation, but they would use the traditional flooding style of irrigation.
All of this is man-made. It led to the destruction of the water cycle, which can be thought of as a cradle-to-grave (C2G) scene for a process which originally had a cradle-to-cradle(C2C) scene. To understand C2C, imagine a droplet of the ocean coming back to the ocean; and for C2G the droplet never comes back. Hence, the depletion of resources.
Water supply is limited, quality is poor
- Niti Ayog Report, 2018 on Indian Water Scenario
One might think, is India the only country suffering from such a crisis, what about the rest of the world? The projected global water stress map below shows the ratio of water withdrawn to the available supply of water. India ranks 40th on the chart, with the entire gulf, some parts of Africa and Europe ranking as high to extremely high water stress regions.
Knowing how deep the crisis has gone isn’t enough, it is important to understand what measures are being taken to preserve this basic human need by individuals, organizations, foundations or government ministries, and what possible solutions can be implemented by them.
1. Water Management
Be it in our homes, offices, farms, the trickling resource needs to be managed and used judiciously. Instead of a ‘supply-more-and-more-water’ approach, the need of the hour is to help nature complete its cycle by taking steps towards conserving, recycling, recharging water bodies, improving the water use efficiency and reducing leakage.
On the industrial level, we must realize that there’s a huge potential in the treatment of wastewater by recycling and reusing it, at least for non-potable purposes.
2. Irrigation Practices
In the USA, an average of 80% of the freshwater obtained from groundwater and rivers, is used for the production of food and other agricultural products. This calls for sustainable water use on farms and practicing water harvesting for irrigation.
In India, there is a renewed focus on micro-irrigation adoption by farmers in the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) to enable efficient on-farm water use.
Agricultural hydrogels, which are eco-friendly super-absorbent materials can be deployed to not only save water but have enormous potential to improve physicochemical and biological properties of the soil.
3. Water Desalination
With an army of countries ranking for high water stress, Israel is an unsung hero in terms of water management. It is the world leader in water conservation, owing much of its efficient water infrastructure to desalination plants, well-managed water network, and high awareness amongst the citizens who understand the value of every drop.
Desalination is removing the salt and impurities from seawater, using the process of reverse osmosis, to make the water potable.
While RO is used on a large scale for desalination, solar powered and solar based water desalination methods can be instrumental in the success of desalination efforts around the world.
4. Indoor Farming
The future of farming is indoors, it certainly involves an upfront investment to construct such a facility, but the opportunities are high in saving water, preserving the biodiversity and feeding a growing population. Companies like Google Ventures-backed Bowery Farming are taking the lead to grow the potential of vertical indoor farming in the world.
5. Natural Storage
Aquifers or groundwater recharge generally takes place through water provided by plants and rain. In the absence of natural replenishment of water caused due to urbanization and climate change, the water under the table starts depleting, consequentially leading to drying up of natural storages.
6. Water Metering
Smart water meters would enable utilities to recover costs, sustain water infrastructure, ensure optimized distribution, reduce wastage, improve the system and resource efficiency, and provide customers with quality service (including accurate billing and enabling water conservation). (Source: Yahoo Finance)
The implementation of these solutions can help lessen the intensity of the water crisis and I’m sure there are more such solutions. But these are starting signs and there is more to come for the environment and humans to deal with.
The title of this blog post is from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, beautifully written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
