Time to Hit the Headlines
Water! Water ! everywhere, but not a single drop to drink

By:- R.K. Birjit Singh *

It is said that future war will be fought over water and whether it is the sun or the rain, water only hits the headlines under two conditions. Number one, when there is not enough of it and secondly, when there is excess of it, what is known as flood and drought. Whenever, there is flood and it is to be followed by drought.

In fact, water is not hitting the headlines, but rather management (mismanagement)? We have had the scientific evidence that life on earth originated in water. Man can survive for weeks without food but not for days without water. Water is the most crucial single resource for the survival of human life and it cannot be replaced or substituted by any form.

Though mother earth is endowed with plenty of water, adequate supply of safe and hygienic water is a big problem and has been a major threat and challenge to the mankind.

Water is likely to play the same role in the world economy in the 21st century that oil played in the 20th century and will be the major source of conflicts and war which will pose a major threat to human security if preventive measures are not taken from local to global level.

The world is now facing water crisis of dimensions that no earlier generation has had to face. It may be already late for some water scarce countries with rapid population growth to avoid a water crisis unless they take immediate and drastic steps for sustainable management of urban water resources.

Water covers nearly 70% of the earth but most of it in the form of salty water in the ocean. Less than 3% of all water on Earth is fresh water, most of it lies frozen in Antarctica and Greenland in polar ice and is unavailable to humanity. Less than 1% of all the water on earth is accessible in the form of surface freshwater, found in lakes, rivers, and underground in shallow aquifers.

As reported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and World Health Organization (WHO), by the year 2025, two by third of the world population will be hit by water stress and scarcity. 15 million children under 5 year will die due to want of water.

3 million children per year will die from diahorrea. 1.5 to 2.7 people per year will die from vector-borne diseases. Six thousand children below five year will die everyday from diahorrea related disease.

Every year the health of the 1.2 billion people will be affected. 1.1 billion people without safe drinking water and 2.6 people who lack sanitation are particularly at risk for poor health. The major countries, which are going to face the severe water scarcity and crisis, include South America, Africa and Indian sub-continent where India is leading in the crisis.

Do we have enough water for future ? India is receiving 4000 billion cubic meters of rainfall every year and is one of the wettest countries of the world. Hardly a third of the potentially available supplies are currently utilized. Coupled with the demands of domestic consumption, industrial use and irrigation, there is often a tussle among the three regarding the share of water and we can see water war among the different states of India.

Out of the 4000 bcm of rainfall, 700 bcm are lost during the flow on ground and another 700bcm due to evaporation. Large amount of it, that is 1500 bcm flows into the see due to flood. Ground water recharge accounts for 430 bcm per year and the present utilized surface water is 370 bcm.

If India is suppose to avoid water war, it has to conserve and channelised 1500 bcm of flood water so that it can be made used for drought affected areas and make sufficient water available to the whole country during non-monsoon months through proper linking, storage and distribution.

Coming to the state of Manipur. Manipur received highly variable form of rainfall from year to year, ranging from less than 600 mm to above 1600, with an average rainfall of 1400mm even though it is located at the wettest zone of the globe. Large amount of the rainwater received flows into the see through the Manipur and Barak river system besides losing through evaporation and during the flow on the ground.

Small river and streams which is the life line of the people of Manipur are dried up due to the indiscriminate deforestation in the catchments areas and their carrying capacity has been reduced to a drastic level and are either converted into nala or drain. The other water bodies like lakes and wetland has also been depleted as never before.

The depletion and contamination of ground water resources has reached a critical stage. The contamination of arsenic has been recently reported at Kakchning, Thoubal district by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. Govt. of India, Kolkata. In such a situation, Manipur state is likely to face the hardest hit of water crisis and scarcity much earlier before the year 2025 as projected by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and World Health Organization (WHO).

Inadequate policy and regulations, combined with non-transparent and non-participatory process is at the root of many of the water management problems plaguing the state. Citing an example, the Accelerated Water Supply Scheme taken up at the various villages, towns and Municipal areas of Manipur under the assistance from the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Govt. of India during the last five years has been under the shadow of " Percentage" and "Akash Bill".

Every nerve and vein of the said schemes, spending crores of rupees had been infested with percentage and akash bill. The fate of these schemes in the present condition is that when there is water, there are no pipelines and when there is pipelines, there is no water. Some of them are non-existent.

Here, we are compromising with our "Right to Life". The right to life has a higher status within the hierarchy of human rights norms. If one cannot have safe drinking water, how we can talk of human right!.

We have more than enough number of hydra headed organizations, agitation entrepreneurs fighting for "my land", "your land" and of the rights and at the end, they will take the law in their hand and forfeit the rights of the other fellow citizens. No organization has comes up for this genuine problem of the people either it is hill or valley.

Neither a single PIL or RTI has been filed nor has movement been organized. If such a situation is allowed to continue, than the time is not far to meet the doomsday of "Water War" amongst the people of Manipur it is either hill or valley.

---

* R.K. Birjit Singh contributes to e-pao.net for the first time . The author is a regular contributor to the reputed science journals, "The Resonance", Science Reporter, "Hornbill, Birdlife", published respectively by Indian Academy of Science, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR), Bombay Natural History Society(BNHS) and Co-organizer of Science Meet, Coordinator of "Year of Scientific Awareness"(YSA), Understanding Planet Earth(UPE) under NCSTC, DST, Govt. of India. In addition, the author is the census coordinator of "Waterfowl Census programme at Loktak wetland" and providing data's to the Asian Waterfowl count of the Wetland International, South East Asia with Dr. R.K. Ranjan Singh.
The writer can be contacted at bsningthemcha(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted at e-pao.net on 15th July 2009.

---