WATER

MANAGEMENT
Need of the hour
By Shaurya Garg
Why we need Water Conservation
◦ Diarrhea kills 4100 children every day which is causing due to consuming unclean
drinking water, more than aids, malaria combined.
◦ Young girls are often forced to abandon their education in search of clean water.
◦ Safe water and sanitation are critical.
Water Management Issues
◦ Increasing Water Pollution
◦ Increasing Ground Water scarcity
◦ Poor Water infrastructure. Natural infrastructure ignored.
◦ Increase in Population.
◦ Faulty Water Pricing: Price of urban water is low as compared to cost incurred in its
provision.
◦ Climate Change: We started burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, natural gas leading to
Climate Change. Climate change leads to unpredictability of rainfall, snow melts and
further deteriorate water quality.
A look into these issues in detail:
◦ Sewage and waste water drainage into traditional water bodies and release of
chemicals and effluents into rivers, streams and ponds leads to Water Pollution.
◦ Use of traditional techniques of irrigation causes maximum water loss. Increased
concretization due to urban development has chocked the ground water resources.
◦ Excess migration of population to the cities coupled with un-planned construction in all
directions resulted in depletion of water resources.
 Solutions:
◦ Restoration of water resources. To spread the message of water conservation and stop
polluting natural water bodies.
◦ Making rain water harvesting a compulsory measure. This will increase the ground water
level.
◦ Recycle waste water.
◦ Improve irrigation and agricultural practices.
◦ Large scale subsidization of water for poor. Proper water pricing policy.
◦ Improve water storage and distribution infrastructure such as dams.
◦ Address population growth.
◦ Use renewable energy resources to fight climate change. Afforestation is also a key to fight
climate change.
◦ Increasing facility of toilets can prevent water contamination.