If someone asks you, what are the life-supporting factors present on the earth?
The first thing that will come to your mind is oxygen and the second will be water.
Without water, life is not possible. It is the water in which life evolves. As the human body is made up of 70% water, how can we imagine life without water?
You must have studied in your earlier classes that earth is called the blue planet because it's 75% of the area is covered with water.
But only 3% of water is considered potable, which can be used for drinking. And rest of the water contains a high level of salinity which makes it unfit for use.
70% of this potable water is in the form of icebergs and polar caps. So, only less than 1% of water can be directly used by us, from us I mean 700 crores population of the world, lakhs of animals and crores of plants.
Potable water availability varies from country to country due to geographical features.
Thankfully, India is a land of monsoon. So, India is counted in those countries which have adequate water resources.
The place which receives maximum rainfall in the world is Mawsynram which is in the state of Meghalaya. Also, in India, there are places like Jaisalmer, which receives just 210mm average rainfall. This variability in rainfall distribution brings floods in some areas and drought in others.
Now let me present a fact to you, that according to the survey of a non-government organization, a village woman needs to travel the distance of 1400km every year to fetch water for the daily requirements of their family.
According to Indian Express, in Gujarat, there is a 12% rise in the villages being supplied drinking water through tankers because of zero potable water availability in their areas.
In India, many states are struggling in court to get the maximum share of water.
1. The Kaveri - Tamil Nadu, Kerela, Karnataka, Pondicherry
2. Krishna - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
3. Ravi Beas - Panjab, Haryana
4. Narmada - Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh
5. The Godavari - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha
How this situation occur?
India is the oldest civilization in the world. The drainage and water management system of Harappa was so systematically constructed.
Then, why India is facing water scarcity?
Actually, during the British Empire rule, every village and towns have certain numbers of ponds and lakes which were the best source of potable water, which is refilled by the monsoon every year.
At that time people take care of the ponds and lakes and maintain them, also used water in the best way.
But then Britishers started taking taxes on the use of water from these lakes and ponds for harvesting and then people slowly stopped doing care of ponds.
From here this dependency on the government for water started.
But now in the places of these lakes and ponds, we have set up factories, shops, houses, roads, etc., and destroyed these conservation units of water.
We have devalued water over development.
Cities and villages receive an adequate amount of water but due to a lack of efficient management and storage system, we can't use it properly.
Another major reason for water scarcity is the overuse of underground water. We have installed lakhs of borewells and tubewells and now the level of groundwater is depleting at an alarming rate.
And also the lowest level of groundwater is unfit for use as it contains high content of fluoride and arsenic which are poisonous.
Floor cement, one of the reasons behind the slow refilling of groundwater. In the name of infrastructure, we have constructed roads, buildings, shops, highways that prevent water to enter the ground for recharging.
How metropolitan cities get water? What is their source?
There is a very complex and big water pipeline system that fulfills the thirst of the people.
City length of the pipeline
Delhi. 300km
Bengaluru. 100km
Chennai. 235km
Hyderabad. 116km
Mumbai. 100km
The major source is the rivers, which are diverted by dams to transport water to these big cities.
Water pollution-
Our holy and precious rivers are now flowing with tonnes of garbage. Supply of contaminated water, dumping of garbage, absence of water treatment plants, and lack of cleaning has increased the pollution level in the rivers.
According to law, no one can directly dispose of the contaminated water of factories and waste of sewage into the rivers but still, it is done, even by the government agencies. It is very shameful.
The Central Pollution Control Board, has given clear instruction to factories that the contaminated water should be treated properly with machinery before disposing into rivers, but the water treatment system is expensive, so to avoid this expense they just dig a well and put the toxic water into it. And now this poison is dissolved with the pure groundwater and surrounding groundwater is also not potable anymore.
So now you can understand how seriously we are taking this problem of water scarcity.
We all know the solution to this problem and it's better to work on it as soon as possible because once we miss the chance it will be too late. It's not just the responsibility of the government, we should also have to actively participate in rainwater conservation as Chennai has done.
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