WATER WATER EVERY WHERE……

Water, water, every where,
but not a drop to drink.

The quote is from the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner traveling in sea. Basically the men on a ship would start to run out of water during their long sea voyages. Yet they would be surrounded by sea water.

Water constitutes about three fourths of the earth’s surface, but only less than one percent of it can be used by its inhabitants. Most of it is salt water oceans (about 97%) and 2% of it is contained in glaciers. With every country seeking to satisfy its ever increasing water needs from shrinking and limited water resources, there could be a future of conflict. As the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon remarked recently that “water scarcity is the potential fuel for wars and conflict. But cooperation, not conflict should guide us in our quest for a solution to this crisis.” In 1992, the UN General Assembly designated March 22, as the World Water Day (WWD) to draw international attention to the critical lack of clean, safe drinking water worldwide.

Ground water depletion is a major environmental concern in our country and calls for an immediate and effective agenda in ground water management.Unsustainable use of water in India's northern states threatens farm output and can fuel the spectre of a major water crisis, distressing 114 million people living there, warns a new study. Human activity like irrigation has pushed groundwater levels in India's north down by as much as one foot per year over the past seven years, says the study by scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Changes in underground water mass affect gravity enough to provide a signal that can be measured by the Grace spacecraft. After accounting for other variations, such changes in gravity are translated into an equivalent change in water.

More than 26 cubic miles of groundwater vanished from aquifers in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and the National Capital Territory of Delhi since 2002, says the study that has used NASA's satellite data. The team of hydrologists found that the underground water supply was being pumped and consumed by human activities such as irrigating cropland and was draining the aquifers faster than natural processes can replenish them.

The finding is based on data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) twin satellites, which sense changes in the distribution of Earth's mass and gravity field distribution, including water masses stored above or below the surface. The region has become dependent on irrigation to maximize farm output. If measures are not taken to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, the consequences for the 114 million residents of the region may include a collapse of agricultural output and severe shortages of potable water.

What are solutions?

• If farmers could shift away from water-intensive crops, such as rice, and implement more efficient irrigation methods, that would help
• In India, much of the rain water is not tapped. Rain water is flooded into seas. Rain water harvesting is one solution for replenishing the ground water.
• There was a proposal for linking of all major rivers of the country, “garland canal” connecting all parts of India, east, west, north and south. This will help to use rain water properly.
• With climate change fast approaching there is change in rain fall pattern in the country, which will further increase water crisis in the country, for mitigating climate change awareness programmes like plantation programmes, energy savings, using of alternative energies etc is essential.