With the increase in population and severe deployment of natural resources, Water Stress condition in the world is surging; which in turn is causing a serious threat for sustainable living, both for present and future generations.
Presently, Water Stress is a heated topic, for both researchers and field practitioners. As a part of the GROW event, a panel discussion on “Water Stress conditions in India: scientific approaches to confront and scale down” was held on 22 nd July 2019. Thirty one students (Research scholars and masters students) from the Water Resources, Remote Sensing and Ocean Engineering specializations actively participated to contribute their ideas on causes, impacts and solutions for Water Stress.
Faculty of Civil Engineering Department, namely, Prof. T. I. Eldho, Prof. V. Jothiprakash, Prof. Subimal Ghosh, Prof. Sivakumar Bellie (Visiting Faculty) and Prof. Basudev Biswal shared their views on Water Stress and actions for overcoming it, after which the students had discussion in groups to lend their thoughts on different know-hows to cope with the Water Stress. The spatial and temporal distribution of water resources is to be well understood, for its efficient utilization. The water yield mapping using remote sensing or field survey techniques for every region should be conducted to build a strong database before proceeding to the modelling studies and implementation of any solution, to overcome Water Stress. Identification and quantification of Water Stress indicators in the context of its domestic use, agriculture, power generation etc. was emphasized. The causes of Water Stress due to the contamination of surface and subsurface water resources due to release of industrial waste, increased dependency on bore wells (where the groundwater recharge and its depletion is not given due importance), overuse of water transitioning the perinneal rivers to intermittent rivers, disappearing lakes etc. were highlighted during the discussion.
Water being the basic need for human life, the primary impact of Water Stress would reflect on us. Monetary loss, ecological imbalance, vulnerable livestock and extinction of species are its long term impacts. Water use efficiency should be increased to scale down the Water Stress conditions. The agriculture sector is the major consumer of water resources. The operation of monitoring devices for water discharge and replacement of leaky water supply pipes can help improve the Water use efficiency. Alternate sources of water to alleviate Water Scarcity is very much required to cater the needs of the growing population. Desalination plants, sewage treatment recycling, interlinking of rivers, atmospheric water generator should be approached based on their suitability to the region of interest. The importance of sustainable solutions such
as zero discharge, drip irrigation, rainwater harvesting system, groundwater recharge systems were highlighted during the discussion. In simple words, Recycle-Reuse and Restoration of water should be an integral part of water management systems.
A transformative research in Water Science with an interdisciplinary approach, which leads to invention of new methods/devices to handle Water Stress is the need of the hour. Such inventions, followed by their innovations will guide the policy makers to enforce water management and adaptation strategies. General awareness, water training and education programs (either by government or NGOs) should be encouraged for an effective change of the common man’s view on water usage and conservation. This can only be achieved through appropriate connection and communication between the human science, biophysical science and political science. Before it is too late to recoil back to the sufficiency in water resources, it is very important for every human being to change his lifestyle in the interest of water conservation.
Written by Sahana V. and S. Sai Veena, Research Scholars, Water Resources Engineering, Dept. of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay.
Comments