Rekha Yadav
When we talk about gifts of nature to the human beings, we are surely thinking about natural resources like water, soil, air, sunlight, fossil fuels, forests, animals and many more. These natural resources provide for the basis of life on earth. Materials surrounding us in our homes, offices are directly or indirectly made from the help of these different types of natural resources.
Due to industrialization and modernization in present era, natural resources like water especially fresh water is facing the threat of continuous depletion. Nowadays, we tend to take water for granted because it flows easily out of the tap. But due to cutting of forests, changing cropping pattern, injudicious use of water, no attention towards recharging of water bodies, excessive pumping of groundwater and many other factors are leading us to the threat of shrinking supply of fresh water. India accounted for 4% of world’s water resource and sustains around 17% population. In 1950, 3000-4000 m3 of water per person was available. Now this has fallen to around 1000 m3. Agriculture water productivity in our country is lowest and it accounts for 89% of total water consumption. Our agriculture practices use around 5600 liters of water for production of one kilogram of rice where as in China it uses 350 liters of water. About 71% of the earth’s surface is covered with water but 96.5 % of this is hold by oceans which is salt water. Of the total quantity of water, fresh water is only 2.60 % and in fact 77.23 % of this is in glaciers, polar ice caps and ice bergs. Thus fresh water available for human use is present in very limited amount. When we talk about India, water resources are unevenly distributed and there is large variation in spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall, which ultimately leads to drought like situation in some parts of country and flood like in other places.
To maintain the availability of fresh water for our future generation, there are two major things to be kept in mind:
1. Rain water harvesting
2. Judicious use of water (avoiding excessive wastage)
Our ancestors were having good knowledge of water harvesting. They used to make structures like village ponds, underground tanks and many other different types of structures for harvesting rainwater. But nowadays, due to negligence such structures are either in poor state or completely removed. Our government is giving emphasis on rejuvenation of such water harvesting structures. Several schemes are being run to meet the water crisis but these schemes will be fruitful only when every person will participate in this mission as his own mission. Every common person can contribute in water saving by adopting following given points:
1. Efficient use of water in kitchen, toilet
2. Recycling of water or multiple time use of same water e.g. water used for cleaning vegetables/fruits can be used for watering the plants
3. Planting more and more trees in our surrounding as they help in maintaining the water cycle on earth
4. Construction of rainwater harvesting structure in every home
Since large portion of our country’s population is still dependent on agriculture as their main occupation and huge quantity of water is used in agriculture. Agriculture can be made profitable and sustainable by efficient use of water. Good irrigation practices like drip irrigation for orchards, sprinkler irrigation for undulating lands instead of flooding the field can result in saving of huge quantity of water. According to present scenario, we have to switch over to such crops which require less water instead of heavy water feeder crops like rice and wheat. Here are some practices which farmers can adopt to conserve water:
1. Construction of farm ponds at individual or community level to store rain water
2. Irrigation scheduling: Avoid under or overwatering of crops by giving irrigation according to soil and plant moisture data and also consider weather forecasting
3. Using compost and mulch: It helps in improving soil structure and increase water holding capacity of soil
4. Grow cover crops: Instead of leaving land fallow, we should go for cover crops depending on the conditions of the region. They will help in reducing erosion and compaction of soil as well as increase water holding capacity of soil
5. Adopt organic farming: It will keep away harmful chemicals from our water bodies and over a period of time will result in increasing water infiltration in the soil.
According to global reports released by the United Nations, 2.1 billion people live without safe drinking water at home and 80% of those who have to use unsafe and unprotected water sources reside in rural areas. While discussing about the availability of water, we are talking about availability of good quality water. Contamination of heavy metals, other pollutants/chemicals and harmful organisms make it unfit for consumption. So, throwing of garbage in rivers, ponds and other water bodies should be strictly prohibited and defaulters must be fined. People living in nearby areas to rivers should be taught about how to use the water in an effective way without deteriorating its quality.
If we want to gift our future generation with good quality of sufficient water, then we have to adopt these methods of water conservation.
(The author has a Ph.D. in Agronomy from CCSHAU, Hisar, Haryana)
