Water

1. India has enough water but lacks water management:
Introduction:
Life came out of water and continuing in many forms since then
around it. The great civilizations thrived along the riverine water. The
urbanisation growth is keyed around the sources of water and
power, fostered by newer technologies to embed quality. Nature’s
bounty of water, air, soil, minerals and metals to our mainland India
is manifested in it’s vivid geographical features. Water, like air, is
freely and abundantly available on earth and in nature, spread across
the areas of snow clad Himalayan Mountains, reverine plains, long
peninsular coastal line covering three sides by the sea apart from
many Islands, deeply enriching it’s groundwater, surface water and
precipitation.
India’s climate and water availability:
India’s climate variety supplements it’s water availability with
seasons of spring, summer, monsoon, autumn, pre-winter, and
winter spreading and varying from tropical in the south, to
temperate to cold glacial and alpine in the Himalayan north,
leveraged by Himalayan ranges and Thar desert, making it conducive
to precipitation. India’s monsoon spread to vast geographical areas
has irregularity, imbalanced distribution, inconsistent and
unpredictable choices, a cause to floods and drought.
The different climatic zones of Himalayas, Assam to West Bengal, the
Indo-Gangetic Plain / North Indian Plain, the Western Ghats and
coast, the Deccan Plateau, and the Eastern Ghats and coast give
potential availability of water impacting temperature and rainfall.
Traditional water uses in India:

2. Agriculture farming in India has been in age-old support from
monsoon and led the growth in it’s economy. Monsoon occurrence is
from mid-june to September, in orographic form so as the regions on
the windward side receive greater rainfall than the regions located
on the leeward side, also counting cyclones and convectional
rainfalls sometimes.
India’s rainfall and snowfall together is over 4000 cubic KM per year
of equivalent fresh water to cater for 16% of world’s population,
covering area part of 4% and water part of 2.5 % of world share
approximately.
For world's total water supply of about 1634 million cubic KM ,
spreading 72 percent of earth, the ocean holds about 97 percent as
salty water and 3 percent is in glaciers and ice, groundwater, in rivers
and lakes. Earth's freshwater spread is around:
 Something like 70 percent in ice caps
 Lesser to 1 percent only accessible
 6 countries (Brazil, Russia, Canada, Indonesia, China and
Colombia) hold 50 percent fresh reserves
There is much more freshwater stored in the ground than on the
surface and atmosphere, according to the USGS.
Inadequacy of water and it’s need:
As an assessment, nearly one-third of the world's population belongs
to "water-stressed" (lacking adequacy of water quantities for human
and environmental needs and demands) countries.
Country’s water demand is going high and high due to rising
population, rapid urbanization, industrialization and agricultural
thrust.

3. India experiences, though varying on temporal and spatial
measurers, an average precipitation of 117 centimetres per year, to
enable about 1,720 cubic metres of fresh water per person every
year. The international norms suggest that a country may be 'water
stressed' if water availability is less than 1700 m3 per capita per year
and 'water scarce' if it falls less than 1000 m3 per capita per year.
Due to increasing economic development, growth in manufacturing
sector, rising output of agriculture and other uses of water with new
threats of weather changes setting in, India’s water inventory may
poise for crisis in future. Large available agriculture fields in the
country are not put to use always in all the seasons for agriculture
due to local water inadequacy and or poor water quality.
The water supply and demand gaps can be manageable by
developing more storages for water inventory and catapulting rivers
interlinking in search of a perpetual solution of water stress and
scarcity. In agriculture, use of the local available water sources
efficiently to crops throughout the year has yielded better output.
Water management in India:
India currently stores small percentage of 6% it’s annual precipitation
or 253 billion cubic metres in inland water bodies and groundwater
aquifers, which excessively increases reliance on groundwater
resources, drawing over 50 percent of irrigated area with 20 million
tube wells installed. India has nearly 5,000 major or medium dams,
barrages, etc. to store the river waters which also enhance ground
water recharging. Topographic constraints, distribution pattern,
technical limitation, and poor management do not allow India to
harness its water resources efficiently.
India is not running out of water but misuses of water making it to
run out of availability. Land based water reservoirs construction is

4. very costly after meeting the resettling and rehabilitation
expenditures. Therefore, to create more water storage, suitable
socioeconomical trade-off between land and forest submergence
and it’s optimisation is needed.
Galloping population demand to store and supply more water. The
climate change leading to more scorching summers, shortened
winters and unpredictable rains, reduced snow cover, retreating
glaciers, disruption in long-established crop patterns, threatening
floods and droughts etc. are a great concern.
The agriculture is usually rainfall dependent since known time but
reach of electricity and diesel made ground water overdrawal 90% of
farmers groundwater consumption, accounting for a quarter of the
world’s groundwater usage, overusing and damaging crop yields.
Water pollution with poor resource management, loss in water
transport like leaks and thefts etc. are very high.
Government’s $87 billion plan to link 60 rivers across India in an
attempt to provide better irrigation sources and reduce flooding,
implementation of drip irrigation for crops like sugarcane, use of
cultivators to dug “farm pools” to harvest rainwater for sustained
irrigation purposes in small areas and more and more going for
shade nets type techniques are impending initiatives.
Over 700 million agrarian population of India, in more than 1.5
million villages is connected to power, making possible for 95
percent of India's rural population accessible to ground water supply
infrastructure.
Water misuse prevention, a right management:

5. The water misuse and conversion to waste is a threat for right water
management, this being recyclable and spreading on earth surface,
mixing with air, and environment creating risk everywhere.
Two billion people worldwide rely on groundwater for their water
supply, irrigation for agriculture, and more. But a growing global
population combined with climate change impacts, all around
pollution and insufficient groundwater recharge are leading to
various detrimental effects.
A good, reliable monitoring data though essential to understand
which solutions work for effective groundwater resource
management but do not exist. To understand it, more details are
required for:
 Groundwater trends and over-usage
 Evolution of continuous monitoring solutions
 Helpful online resources
India harbours diverse types of wetlands, it’s conservation and wise
use. The extent of wetlands has been estimated to be 15.26 m ha.
Inland wetlands account for 69.22% (10.564 m ha), whereas the
coastal wetlands account for 27.13% (4.14 m ha). The high-altitude
wetlands (situated > 3000 m asl) in the Himalayan states comprise
126,249 ha of areal extent.
From 1951, when per capita water availability was about 5177 m3 it
has gone below to about 1,508 cubic meter in 2014 (Source: Water
Resources Division, TERI) with more than three times population rise.
Reasons behind water scarcity in India could be:
High population growth and mismanagement of water resources.
Some of the major well known reasons for water scarcity are:

6. Excessive use of water for agriculture in India, being amongst the
highest user following irrational methods with high water loss due to
evaporation, drainage, percolation, poor water conveyance and
excess drawl of groundwater. Extensive use of micro-irrigation such
as drip and sprinkler irrigation required.
Water recharge zones reduced rapidly for infra of bourgeoning
population drying perennial aquifers.
Sewage and wastewater drainage mixed into traditional water
bodies spoiling whole.
Chemicals and effluents discharged in rivers, streams and ponds.
Floods carrying such frequent mix-ups.
No timely de-silting of large water bodies to recover water storage
capacity during monsoon.
Governments at states not allowed full capacity fill-up of water
storage levels in reservoirs.
Water management and distribution to consumers, agriculture and
industry poorly run. More investment in technology to upgrade and
enhance to include all stakeholders for optimization of existing
resources.
Water is a great solvent and it has many adulterating additives today
than ever before to pollute it.
Marine life critically strained.
As an example, Matatila dam near Jhansi was built providing drinking
water to the city for well over a hundred years. Excess migration of
population to the city coupled with industrialisation, more agri-uses
and unplanned construction in all directions, resulted in traditional
aquifers, which existed in and around the city, being blocked.

7. The levels have now fallen significantly. The ground water cannot
recharge, the supply getting only worse. The demand for water
continues to grow while the collection, storage, regeneration and
distribution has become over stressed.
If water is the need for sustainability of lives, the rivers are the
natural national arteries and veins to make it to flow. In this context,
most Indian rivers have turned into drains of waste dumped from
various urban and industrial centres. The jagged urbanization
encroachment, agricultural fertilizer and pesticide runoffs, sewage
draining, silting and erosion, over withdrawal of water and
inconsiderate socio-religious practices have made extinction of main
rivers physically. The deforestation, sand mining and riverbank uses
have enhanced river pollution and reduced the ground recharge
capacity and natural flows.
From an estimate, about 135 thousand million metric tonnes of
sediment load and 32 thousand million tonnes of soluble matter
enter into ocean through various rivers. Water flowing through
Indian rivers is 5 % of the water flowing through all the river of the
world but carry 35 % of sediments.
Lakes
In India, there are urban and rural lakes along with natural water
bodies which have been categorized under the Ramsar Convention
on Wetlands (1971) and are important mostly from ecological
sustenance, as a source of livelihood for many people, drinking,
agriculture, sewage absorbers, flood cushions, recharge zones, birds
and animals breed centres, pisciculture, aquaculture, tourism and
even for industries.

8. Water shortages in lakes, which sources of replenishment are
seriously impaired due to encroachment and loss of catchments,
have resulted in bird sanctuaries and fisheries getting seriously
affected.
Groundwater aquifers
Regarding groundwater aquifers, the underlying geology,
topography, local hydro geology and geotechnical features limit not
only the formation of large continuous aquifers but recharging and
penetration as well.
The aquifer waters became contaminated with high levels of arsenic
and fluoride from the rocky layers. Again, excessive abstraction of
groundwater especially in coastal areas has resulted in seawater
ingression making the available water useless. Around many coastal
zones, water table has plummeted to more than 80 to 100 m with
water turning saline in many areas of the city, primarily because of
excess use of ground water there.
Conclusion
Firstly due to imploding population, water is becoming precious both
in terms of quality, quantity and timely availability reflecting a supply
scarce position. Secondly, the demand side requirement is increasing
leaps and bounds for food, industrial requirements and economic
activities lurching ahead.
The India’s water systems needs corrective management to revive
sustainability. In a nutshell, the over abstraction, inefficient uses.
overdrawal, unplanned mining, rampant pollution, encroachment
and land use changes, degradation of watersheds, limited efforts in
conservation, sectoral conflicts. Even for a gigantic growth in
population, available water is good enough for a normal living

9. provided it’s efficient use is done restricting the wastage, pollution,
enhanced storage, piped deliveries and better application of
techniques.