WATER CRISIS

Renewable sources of energy

A renewable source is a natural resource with the
ability to reproduce through biological or natural
process and replenished with the passage of time
Renewable resources are part of natural
environment and form our ecosystem
Renewable resources are endangered by the
industrial growth
Examples: Solar radiation, tide, wind, geothermal,
biomass
Soil, water , forest and animals
Biomass , and water, timber
Non renewable energy resources
The non renewable resources can not be
reproduced, grown or used on a scale which
can sustain its consumption rate
Fossil fuels: Coal, petroleum and natural
gases
Nuclear power: Uranium
Fresh water as renewable source
of energy
Story of cherrapunji
With the average rainfall of 11.5 m,
cherrapunji is listed in geography book as
wettest place on earth
Yet cherrapunji in state of meghalya faces the
severe droughts rest of the year
How it is possible that not a drop of water
remain to quench the thrust of the people
Deforestation
Once upon a time the hills around cherrapunji were
full of dense forest
These forest soaked up the heavy rain and released
it slowly over the years.
Cutting of forest
Washed away the top soil and turn the slope in to
desert
Now it is a mining town and people make their living
by extraction of coal
No reservoir of water
Supply of water come from far and is erratic and
undependable
What this story tells
Importance of forest
Rain harvesting
Forests as the protector of the top soil
Increasing water crisis
Water as unique source
Prerequisite for existence of life
Human body composed mainly of water
Can survive without food but not without
water
Critical for economical growth,
environmental sustainability, biodiversity
conservation, food security and health care
No replacement of water
Paradox is that there is scarcity amidst plenty
How much water we need
We need water for drinking, cooking, bathing,
flushing, washing clothes, washing utensils and
gardening
In agriculture we need water for growing food items
like rice, wheat, vegetable, fruit, coffee, tea and
sugarcanes
Thermal power plant and nuclear plant
Industries
Animals
The absolute minimum for domestic use is 50 lt per
person perday though 100 to 200 lt is recommended
Indirect use of water
Paper-10lt, potato(100g)-25, cup of coffee-
140lt, Milk-1000, sugar-1500, rice-3400
Water foot print: is an indicator that
measures both direct and indirect use of wate
Water foot print of a country= (yearly amount
of domestic water used to produce all good
and services consumed with in country+
yearly amount of virtual water in good and
services imported in country
How the available water used
Human being use about 54% of the accessible
fresh water supplies in the world and this will
increase to 70% by 2025
Agriculture use 70% , industry22%, domestic
8% yet there is scarcity of water
How much water is there in the
world
14 million cubic km and half of it is underground
that lie too far underground
Water cycle: 430,000 cu Km water evaporate
from oceans and 40,000 cu km falls on land as
snow or rain
Is this water sufficient
40, 000cu Km amount to 5700 cu mfor per
person per year for a population of 7 billion
And need for a person is only 1700 cum
We should be comfortable yet there is water
scarcity
How to measure water
scarcity
Abve 1700 cu m per person per year no water
scarcity
About 1700 cu m- occasional or local
1000 cu m-chronic water scarcity(adverse effect
on human health and economic development)
500 or below- absolute scarcity
In 1995-31 countries with population of 460
milllion
By 2025- 48 countries with 2.8 billion
By 2025-40% if the projected global population
Why there is water scarcity
Demand is going up sharply and the available
amount has been going down
Exploding population
Rapid industrialization
Increasing irrigation needs

Water supply has been adversely
affected
Rapidly increasing pollution of rivers, lakes as
well as ground water is reducing
Pollution made water unfit for use
Incredibly small amount of substances like oil
pollute huge amount of water
In many places the rate of extraction of
groundwater for irrigation is so high that
ancient aquifers are getting depeleted
Uneven distribution
Some areas get too much water while other too
little and also the transport of water over long
distances is impractical
Rain fall occurs over a short period followed by
droughts
Run off added by deforestation, so water reaches
the ocean quickly before we can use
Inequality in allocation of water resources
Rich utilize more
The urban draw great deal of water from
surrounding areas depriving the poor people
Megacities
More consumption and come from neighboring
villages and far off river and lakes
No retention of water
More pollution
so the water scarcity lead to conflicts
India, bangladesh and nepals fighting over ganga
brahmaputra basin
Cauvery b/w karnataka and tamilnadu
Consumption by industry over irrigation
Water situation in India
India and china are hotsopt (large population)
60000 villages without single source of water
1 million child die due to the contaminated water
45 million people affected
The problem has been compounded by
deterioration, misuse and disappearance of
tanks and ponds
More extraction of ground by electric pumps
Extraction is twice the recharge rate
Solution to water crisis
Reduce demand
Educate the people to use less water
Install water saving devices like self closing taps
Use decentralized waste water recycling system
Adopt composting toilets
Reduce industrial consumption through
recycling, reuse and new water efficient
technologies


Adopt agricultural practices
that uses less water
Require water hungry crops with those require
less water
Promote crops that can tolerate salty water
Use efficient ways for irrigation: spinkler
method, drop irrigation

Rain harvesting
There are two ways in which rainwater can be
harvested
To slow down the flow of water through bund
and check dams. The longer the water remain
on land the more it percolate in ground and
hence recharge the aquifers and well (rural
areas)
To collect and store rain water
The rain water that falls on roof can be
collected filtered and stored.