The looming crisis of diminishing fresh Water Reserve

S Kunjabihari Singh *

Water scarcity in Singda Dam area : Rivers in Imphal drying up in April 2014 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Peter Rogers observed, "As demand for freshwater soars, planetary supplies are becoming unpredictable". Peter Rogers is Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering and Professor of City and Regional Planning at Harvard University. He is also Senior Adviser to the 'Global Water Partnership', an organization devoted to improving global water management practices.

According to him, models examining the effects of climate change and population and economic growth on water availability by 2025 indicate that climate change alone will bring scarcity to many places far and wide. While climate change can influence scarcity, the combination of population growth and climate change could be just devastating.

Indian subcontinent fits into the second category and experts estimate the demand for fresh water in India as also almost every country in the South East Asian region could be anywhere around 120% of the locally available water.

Given this impending crisis, why not we common man do something positive to conserve every drop of water from getting waste, in our own locals, own houses within our might, right away. Why should not we endeavor to bring awareness of the looming crisis among the citizens across the state? 'Save Water Project', should be conceived and taken up especially in the urban areas where the problem of water scarcity would eventually intensify.

We can recall one unique method attempted in a small school in Nagaon district of Assam. A class VI student, Eshani Das of Nagaon Bengali High School, pours the water remaining in her flask at the end of the day into one of the many plastic bottles which are tied upside-down to trees on the school campus. The bottoms of the bottles are cut and holes are drilled into their sides which ensure that the water from Eshani's flask drips onto the tree in a phased manner.

This simple and yet extraordinarily unique idea safeguards the anyway thirsty trees while at the same time, not only conserves water but also recycles discarded plastic bottles which otherwise go waste in the drains and rivers clogging waterways. The 350 strong students in the petite school now take the idea as one mission not to throw away left over water, however small a quantity they could be and use it for the trees around. They also help in conserving the water.

Many of the students could be adopting the same practice in their own houses, however few the trees could be. The spread-effect in the neighborhoods could be tremendous with locals trying to replicate this simple practice. Can't we own up this simple application in our localities? The million dollar question is however, who would shoulder this responsibility of sensitizing, enticing or encouraging the natives to initiate measures to save water? Can the spread effect succeed?

I had seen in Perth, a small city in Western Australia, the loose soil around the feet of the roadside trees on the pavement, about 1 meter square, is invariably covered with a layer of thin, about two inches wide, wood splinters spread around the tree. As we were walking down the foot path, my curiosity urged me to enquire about this new sight.

My son explained that it was to retain water, protect or conserve the moisture in the soil from rapid evaporation; one way of conserving water in a country where water is used conservatively. In their house in Clayton, a small residential area in Victoria, on a Sunday, as I tried to wash their car with water spray in the compound, my son again asked me to take easy as water is scarce and the car can be cleaned with air-pressure at the petrol depot.

Imagine the consciousness among the natives and even the immigrants like my son to fall in line, the element of abiding by the regulation there. Though we cannot claim to be anywhere near that level of awareness, we can at least be concerned about saving water in our own houses.

Contrasting this with our own ways, the accumulated loss of water in our state could be imagined, given the random use or more possibly, liberal use of water in our everyday system in the kitchen, the bath room and in many other ways. It's time to acquaint the public, particularly the home makers, the children, in fact every common man of the imperative urgency to save and conserve water more so in the greater Imphal area.

Simple tips to minimize water use in our daily chores is the urge to water our lawns or flower pots in the early morning or at night to avoid losses by evaporation. Nowadays, we install dual-flush toilet which uses less water for liquid waste. We can also run our washing machines, for full loads only. Even they suggest using low-flow shower head to minimize use and it is sensible. There could many other ways we can increasingly adopt.

The level of awareness, the zeal to be an active stake holder in this mass effort need be enhanced. There are many ways to do this. The help of media houses, electronic and print can be of immense use. Hoardings, paintings can be exhibited across the length and breadth of the city. Brochures highlighting the many ways of conserving water, the simple tips hitherto, not given much of thought before, though in brief, (lengthy ones are ignored easily), could be circulated.

The teaching institutions can be roped in for wider publicity and more focused attention of the students in a bigger way. The unknown school in Nagaon town where the students initiated a mission, only the other day, "Save Water, Use it Properly, Don't Throw Away" can be adopted too as a major initiative.

Salam Rajesh, a senior journalist of name, in a column in the Peoples' Chronicle (May 15), writes, "In August 2006, Sikkim's Department of Forest, Environment and Wildlife Management passed legislation for lake conservation in association with local communities…….an initiative… to rope in active participation of local stakeholders towards the long term protection. Preservation and conservation of wetlands …. . The primary objective…….ensuring protection of the forests, environment, wildlife and biodiversity in the Pokhri Sanrakshan Shetra (PSS), areas through the active participatory role of the volunteers of PSS with an equally enthusiastic support of the forest staffs."

Continuing, Rajesh sumps up "That same year in Manipur, a similar legislation was passed by the Government of Manipur, titled as the Loktak Lake (Protection) Act of 2006 with the set objective of protecting, preservation and conservation of freshwater Loktak lake……… in Sikkim's case, the focus was on the active participation of local communities towards the general effort in conserving the wetlands….In Manipur's case, the participatory role of the local communities was absolutely missing".

The gap in the two states towards sensitizing the local community and thus ensuring local association and participation was visible; the index of success could only be contrasted. Imphal too have been facing scarcity of water for the last few years. The major rivers went dry and the water reservoirs fed by these went dry.

The Singda dam too is increasingly unable to feed water for the city proper; the principal factor being the inability to conserve surface water again due to mass deforestation in the catchment area. If the plantation of reportedly five lakh trees which the CM himself launched on first May, 2013, could be even 50% success (which is a suspect, subject to a tree audit), the Singda water reservoir would be able to replenish in another 2 to 3 years when the trees, if at all they withstand the total lack of minimum care for their survival, gain adequate growth.

In the recent past we had seen the severe drought in Maharashtra, MP and parts of Rajasthan in parts of western India. Water had to be transported by train to these states from Delhi. This new phenomenon is not exclusive preserve of India alone. Experts opine that the world's underground water reserves are depleting at an alarming rate. Jay Famiglietti, a California based Hydrologist had to comment on the looming water challenge, "Most of the world's mid-latitude regions—those that are already arid to semi-arid are getting drier. Replenishing ground water supplies will grow even more difficult in the coming decades. Since ground water fuels agriculture productivity, its disappearance means producing food for our growing population will become increasingly challenging, sooner than later."

Continuing, he observed, "Rajasthan-Punjab-Haryana region was losing about 17.7 cubic kilometers of water per year. Those are among the highest rates of ground water depletion in the world….., the region of depletion of water is now spreading across Northern India and into Bangladesh. I am afraid this does not bode well for India, now and into the future."

Since water cycle and climate are intimately linked, this change in climate leads to change to the water cycle and therefore to the availability of fresh water. Flooding in the NE region and drought in the western parts of the country at the same time is becoming more extreme and it is asserted that this trend would continue more regularly over the years.

Hydrologists estimate the minimum water each person requires for drinking, hygiene and growing food is around 1,000 cubic meters per year. This volume is estimated to be nearly equivalent to two fifths of an Olympic-size swimming pool. Maintaining such a huge quantity of water would call for two-pronged approach; one, conserving water to the maximum for which public awareness need be increased. The other, technology which is now available is beset with lack of technical training, bad governance and poor finance.

The age-old saying "Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink", is near equivalent to the fact that "lots of water, but not always where it is needed". Experts assess that 56% of all the precipitation that falls on land flows through landscape, 36% ends up in ocean, 5.1 % goes to crops, livestock, and natural farm irrigation, 1.5% directly used by people and 1.3% evaporated from open water. They estimate that 61% of total precipitation is absorbed by soil and plants and then released back into the air, unavailable for withdrawal, termed as 'Green Water'.

38.8% gets collected in rivers, lakes, wetlands and ground water; available for withdrawal, that we can tap directly, before it evaporates or reaches the ocean and is termed as 'Blue Water'. Farm irrigation from this free-flowing water is considered as the biggest single human use of freshwater. Cities and industries consume only tiny amounts of total fresh water resources. The inevitable tragedy is, the ever increasing local demand they create, often drains the surroundings of ready supplies.

During this forthcoming Van Mahotsava Week, while the focus could be on plantation, since trees are intimately linked to retaining or conserving water, the major goal should be something like plantation in the real sense. In the past we had seen many efforts for plantation or greening the major parts of our city and around involving not less than of the leader of the stature of CM.

The success rate of the missions, say, the infamous, Singda dam plantation in 2013, the Lilong-Tangjeng, (a stretch of just around 3 kilometers) roadside plantation in the succeeding year, could be rated at the most, as below average. Why can't we have a tree-audit to ascertain the level of survival of the trees in important areas, not so much for pointing an abusing finger to the organizations, rather for improving our effort before it is too late? Funds, the scarce rupees spent on these elaborate exercises could be ignored for a moment. The time, this precious element, lost in the less-than-average success is of greater concern.