Water resource management is the need of the hour

“Scarcity in plentitude”, that is water. The 70% of our glorious planet surrounded by magnificent oceans grants a meager 4% of freshwater. Even this miniscule quantum would suffice our needs, had humanity treated ‘water’ remotely humanly. Today, water is a precious resource, owing to its ‘finitude’ caused by mismanagement. Now it has necessitated a careful relook, as once in ‘endless abundance’. it now is a ‘paucity’.

One of the eminent oceanographer ‘Sylvia Erle’ has ushered in the concept of ‘Hope spots’ to save the oceans which despite their expanse are protected to the extent of den than 5% as compared land protected to the tune of 10%. Water resource management is the urgency of our times, a crisis that once was lingering in the dark, has started to come out in the light.

As ‘Shakespeare’ would say it’s our  choice “To be or not to be “. humanity has to decide whether it wants to live in sincerity about the grave danger of immigrant water poverty or it would prefer a convenient ‘self – denial – cum – deception’ with sincerest ignorance.

Spinoza, the great pantheistic tradition philosopher had said “we are but drops, ripples and waves in the ocean, that never really are”. That is to assert, we are ocean, ocean gave us birth, ocean gave life. The atmospheric security of oxygen on which very much our life depends was first relearned from ocean. Today are oceans are turning into hypoxic ‘dark zones’. The has broached the debate on the management of the resource, that we eall – ‘water’.

Every ancient civilization, in the memory of human minds has its inception around river valleys. For instance, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro around river ‘Indus’. civilization of ancient ‘Egypt’ around ‘Nile’. ‘Mesopotamian’ culture on the banks of ‘Tigris and Euphrates”. Progression of human population density however, has resulted into ‘overexploitation’ and the scientific data indicates that these ‘river stretches’ are most polluted and even ‘unfit’ for human consumption. River water conservation and management is dire need of our times.

‘Damming’ of these rivers unscientifically has not only affected their ecological flow, but has increased regimentation and risen seurbeds. ‘Dams’ once hailed as ‘temple of human development’ are now participant and one of the constituents of participant and one of the constituents of drastic floods e.g.  Ulnar river in (Maharashtra) and Kerala floods (2018). This  begs the question of whether our human development measures ensuring water security or are they the cause of our water insecurity.

“No water, NO life, NO Blue, NO Green”. Our life, and our planet’s life is dependent on water. Especially the developing countries in tropical areas. IPCC special report, mentions the horrific consequences of ‘climate change’. the impacts of which can be witnessed in ‘extremities’ – at one hand drought on the other hand . flood, cyclone and inundation.  

Furthermore, Agricultural will be worst affected. Around 60% of Indian agriculture id rain fed, suffusing from havoc of monsoonal vagaries.. Yet , it is also a culprit with a whopping 80% share of groundwater extraction from irrigation. Low water use efficiency. wrong methods of irrigation e.g. flood irrigation are yielding not crop but more problems – Stalinization and desertification in the long run. The case in point is ‘Indira Gandhi canal’ command  area in Rajasthan, and regions in Panjabi and Haryana. Proper management is a matter of concern in its water resources, as ‘water insecurity’ is the mother ‘food – insecurity’.

Besides Agricultures, our Industrial sectors like paper and pulp, leather, chemicals and textile are heavily dependent on water. Yet ‘water responsibility’ seens an evading notion even after supreme court’s instructions in ‘M.C. Mehta case (2013)’ the pollution continues unabated. ‘Central water commission’ recently reported 11 out of 14 major rivers have heavy metal contamination. Last month Singrauli (MP) Essarplant released Fly Ash has contaminated 198 acres of villages. This effectively poses the question about our mismanagement of water resource.

Famous kannada saying is-

” true owners of the land are yet to be born”. Albeit use are unmindful of our future generations. In 1950 – 50, India had 5450 cubic metre per capita water availability which has reduced to len than ‘1300’, effectively putting us into dark trajectory of a nation i.e. “water scarce”. NITI Ayog’s recent report conforms this with water poverty in 2030s. This is an attack on ‘right to life’ itself that forms the core of united Nations SDGS. A testament to a mismanaged resource’s catastrophe.

At this point, a further examination by WHO shows that a world with unequal water resource availability will be the birthing place of diseases e.g. Diarrhoea, cholera, jaundice, Hepatitis A etc. IN India, we are already facing the repercussions of this correlation between water and health. In 90% of the under fine year child mortality. cause is water – borne diseases. This is the  extent of dilapidated condition

Furthermore, not just health, it will disrupt the very social fabric of societies and the worst sufferer will be the vulnerable sections – women, children and elderly. A new system of ‘water – wives’ is regions where ‘more wives, fetching more water is changing the institution of family and marriage in the shadow of patriarchy. This sheds the light on the ‘gravity’ of ‘water crisis’.

“Man is complex, he makes desert bloom and lakes dry” says Robert Green. Indeed our wetlands are on decline. Iraris urmia lake has shrunk to one – third, Aral sea in Uzbekistan has been well studied phenomenon. Even in India, many lakes in urban areas are shrinking, either naturally due to lack of surface water recharge (due to concretization) or artificially by real estate developers to convert it into property. The study by wetlands international shows, the decline of water bodies at the rate off 22% each year. This speaks volume of how we have mismanaged water resource.

“We need to stop financing the denial of water scarcity”. Every year the water cast we bear, owing to our mismanagement of water – resource is to the tune of $ 300 Billion and especially India loses 2 – 3% of its CDP, as per world bank. A ‘violated’ water resource will cost us our natural capital, physical capital and human capital deterioration. Thus, the economic significance of water management can’t be ignored.   

“In nature there are no rewards or punishments; there are only consequence”. consequences, these are, be it migration, for instance maldhari tribe migrating from Banni grassland (Gujarat), resultant refufce crisis of Rohingya, pollution or the lass of biodiversity. wildlife habitats are getting fragmented due to dearth of water and resultantly what we see is man – animal conflict. Reason for such incidences could be attributed to our mismanagement of  whole situation relating to water.

Gandhiji taught us, “Nature has plenty for everyone’s need but not for anyone’s greed”. Endowed we were, with water! Yet today water is the cause of not just interstate dispute for ’26 years’ for Cauvery but also international disputes e.g. Indus water (between India and Pakistan), Tista river (India – Bangladesh) etc. It will be no surprise ” if third world war will be the first water war “. This war, will be of our making, this misutilization is a tragedy, whose author are we.

Famous scientist Buckminster fuller once said, ” Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons”. It seems apparent, with rapid advancements in technology, our cancer with ‘water’ has gone to oblivion. the scientists are murmuring “solving down of global oceanic conveyor belt” which will change ocean currents, jet streams. Our Himalayas are threatened, with global warming crossing 1.5°c the glaciers wall retreat by one – third by 2050, we might see more plastic than fishes in ocean. Nanobeads are entering into food cub. Technology was supposed to be the guardian and not the destroyer of our water resource.

Notwithstanding above, “every dark cloud has a silver lining”. Technology can come to our aid. with better aquifer mapping, water grid with internet of things, satellite monitoring of ecological flow in river, solar pumps in agriculture, right steps can be taken to ensure water security.

“Time is always right to do what is right ” (martin Luther king junior). In this spirit, the programmers launched by United nations like SDG – “water for all’ should be adhered in full swing. Indian government has also established dedicated – JAL SHAKTI ministry with the motive of water harvesting a Jal-Andolan, “Har ghar jal” will soon become a reality shining local community level example of Jalna district (Maharashtra) shows, that the problem of water deficit can be solved locally. Here villagers have dug shallow walls with gypsum natural rock strata to store water. This shows the localized version of water security.

Not only this but also our traditional rain harnessing system e.g. Baoli (Rajasthan), Ahar – Payne (Bihar) can be a solution. “water” has not gone anywhere else, it is very much here on our ‘Earth’. we have just mismanaged it. It’s high time that each individual own up this responsibility by conserving water in daily life. As to respond to our prime minister’s clarion call with this resolve we will have achievement i.e. “sankalp – se – siddhi”.