WATER: A LOOMING CRISIS

Crisis after crisis arises everyday and everywhere in the world.

The crisis for water to work is looming around us severely from 2008 onwards.

The crisis we face today is like cancer in society, slowly and slowly it grows and grinds the society to pain.

Solutions to these crises are in the hands of the society which is controlled by various kinds of governments.

Attempts are going on and policies are prepared for implementation all over the world.

Meetings, seminars, summits, dialogues and discussions are continuously held in one part or another of the world.

Therefore, the common man who lives everyday without worrying about the next day, sees the formation of clouds of problem in the horizon.

But his life continues even in difficult time as in good times.

On the other hand, the rich who earn more than what they want in life are worried so much because they are on the verge of losing their work and wealth.

Strange situation prevails around us.

I read everyday gloomy articles in dailies telling about the seriousness of the problems

ahead of us.

Among the various crises one of the most important life-saving crises is the water.

Water is a precious commodity, the importance of which is not highlighted much to public according to me.

‘We never know the worth of water till the well runs dry’ is a proverb.

The sign of exhaustion is evident for world’s fresh water.

Logically there should not be exhaustion because the water we receive from the rain falls on earth evaporates and return again in the form of rainfall.

Therefore, there is as much water in the world today as there ever was.

But the water use rose more than 35-fold between 1900 and 1990 because of the increase in human population.

Sandra Postel of the World Watch Institute indicated in 1989:

“In several parts of the world, water demands are fast approaching the limits of resources. Many areas could enter a period of chronic water shortages during the nineties, including northern China, all of northern Africa, pockets of India, Mexico, much of Middle East and parts of the western United States.”

It has been projected that most Asian countries will have severe water problems by the year 2025.

Such projections should pave a way for the policy making Governments to plan well in advance to meet e ensuing challenges.

Increase in population and economic development (industries) require long term planning for regulation, allocation and usage of water resources.

Competition for water is growing day by day.

Drinking water, sanitation, industrial activities and agriculture are to be considered because all these are important for the survival of human beings in this planet.

‘The watering of crops currently (1991) uses something like 3300 cubic kilometers of water a year – roughly six times the requirement for industrial and domestic uses’ according to Robin Clarke.

Agriculture is the biggest consumer of water everywhere.

Irrigated rice is a heavy consumer of water.

It takes 5000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of rice.

When we buy rice, we do not think of it.

Unbelievable to many of us who do not know the physiology of rice crop.

Rice is the most important food crop and it is the staple food for 90% of the world’s poor people.

Hence we can not do away with rice and we have to cultivate rice spending so much of water every year to feed the teeming million or billion!

Rain, the source of water for Asia is unevenly distributed in this region.

The monsoon rainfall lasts from four to six months and the rest of the months remain dry.

Furthermore the monsoon is often erratic.

When excess, much of the water simply flow into the sea as waste and when it is deficit water shortage and crop failure occur.

Meteorologists tried to predict through their weather models the nature of monsoons, but without much success.

Water is certainly a critical input to the rice production, but it causes many problems too, to the farmers at times.

Long standing surface water causes water logging, makes the land unproductive and leaves soils salty as the water evaporates.

About six million ha of irrigated land in India are known to be affected by water logging.

Nearly 10% of Pakistan’s irrigated 13.5 million ha is affected by salinity.

Once water logging and salinity occur; it is very difficult to reverse the process even with major investments in drainage facilities.

Thirty years after commissioning of left bank canal of the Tungabhadra irrigation project in Karnataka State, India about 33000 ha were water logged and saline; farmers abandoned about 20000 ha there because the land was no longer productive.

So water sometimes creates damage to the crop lands.

Underground water is another source has created shortage of water at many places.

Over exploitation of this source has created shortage of water at many places.

Most of the shallow well waters are polluted when aquifers are recharged with irrigation water contaminated with chemicals like fertilizer and pesticides.

Over years these problems accumulated and added more worries to the farmers.

One of the ways out is to use water more efficiently in rice production without wasting.

More than half the water consumed in rice production is often used to prepare the land – and most of this is lost in the process through percolation and seepage.

Direct seeding by broadcasting pre germinated seed into wet, puddle soil (wet seeding) is one of the methods.

Another method is sowing un-germinated seeds into dry or moist but un-puddle soil (dry seeding).

Wet seeding, in fact, requires less water than does transplanting for both land preparation and crop irrigation.

Maintaining shallower depths of water, especially during the post-vegetative stage of the crop is one of the advantages.

In dry seeding, seeds are broadcast before or at the onset of the rainy season and germinate when rain provides enough moisture.

Almost all the early rainfall contributes to crop growth.

Producing more rice per unit of water is the slogan followed nowadays.

So important is the water problem worldwide that it requires water management.

There are separate departments and institutes in water management studies.

The International Irrigation Management Institute in Sri Lanka is working as a Centre for improving the increased effectiveness of water management research.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at Philippines is the lead centre putting all its expertise to efficiently utilize water in the production of rice to feed the people.

Similarly all world bodies and Governments are advised by experts to conserve water which is going to be a limiting factor for future growth of humanity.