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Water, Waste, Wetlands – for India

Water is a defining factor in affecting common people’s lives. Apart from water scarcity and remote access, most of the rivers and even the groundwater are contaminated. Water borne illnesses like diarrhea, dysentery, gastroenteritis etc are quite common and a major source of poor health as well as malnutrition particularly in children. Apart from that, our ground water is fast drying up and the specter of total dry up is on the horizon, maybe in just 10 – 15 years time. 

So what is the solution?

Now solving water problems is not easy and at least a basic three pronged approach is needed which can be defined around Water, Waste and Wetlands.

Waste

The reason most rivers are polluted is because traditionally most cities have developed along their banks and they simply dump their drainage and other waste into the rivers. For instance, Delhi has huge drains like the Najafgarh drain or the Shadara drain; where do you think they are headed?  To the Yamuna! Yes, they simply go and dump everything into it. There is no possible way to clean it. The solution lies in developing a drainage network that flows outwards to the outskirts of cities where it is treated and put to other uses.

Now waste management is easier said than done. Firstly a drainage system will have to be set up (The current drains are actually storm water drains). Waste to Energy is a complex process and also generates ash and other residues which will have to be dealt with. Then the treated water would need to find alternate uses – either in horticulture, agriculture, constriction or non drinking needs of the urban populace.

Water

To harvest rainwater, more lakes or dams are needed. In most cities, land is at a huge premium and is sold to builders for lucrative housing or commercial projects. So, demarcating land for lakes might be a tall order. But perhaps outside metros, where real estate is still cheap, lakes can be developed easily.

While a number of small dams could be built on rivers but they usually invite a lot of opposition from environment groups. One aspect is displacement of people for building the dams and another is releasing of waters in heavy downpour season causing floods in adjoining areas. Another issue concerns bigger dams – it is considered to be one of the man made factors in causing Earthquakes. I do not know how far this is substantiated but I do remember hearing that China’s 3 Gorges dam did probably cause the Sichuan Earthquake. And the dam also slowed down the water flow considerably downstream leading to algae development. So, a lot of pros and cons so far as the dams are concerned but they shouldn’t be ruled out.

The crux of our water problem is indiscriminate use in agriculture. Farmers simply pump out ground water for irrigation and water conservation is not even a remote priority. So larger farms that can use better technology as well water conservation methods like drip or at least sprinkler irrigation plus better crop suitability to local climate might help both water conservation as well as farms productivity.

Wetlands

Now, there can be just no arguments against this. Creating rainforests, wetlands etc. is the best way to harvest water and they add so much to the natural scenic beauty. They create beautiful habitats for birds and make for great outdoor and picnic spots. They would compensate for all the greenhouse gases we emit also. All along the river basin such wetlands can be developed. Unlike waste management which is a huge and expensive exercise, this is relatively easy. So, entirely ‘doable’ if we put our minds to it!

But the key success factor would remain public awareness and interest which in turn creates political will, especially in a democracy. So, awareness and interest generation through audio visual medium might help build a case for the Waste, Water and Wetlands cause that can really help uplift the living standard of common people.

So I hope we can log on to www.india and fast as water is one of the most stressed resources of our century. 

Water & India – Progress Together?

Water is a critical resource for the world in the 21^st century and India, with its bludgeoning population and poverty is no exception to this. The causal factors are as follows:

Agriculture is splintered into tiny farms which simply pump groundwater for irrigation. Water conservation is not even remotely on the radar. This has led to severe groundwater depletion and the water table is expected to “DRY UP” in 10 -15 years’ time as predicted by the World Bank, unless we do something about it

Rivers supply drinking water for cities but they are also the recipients of all urban drainage. Yes, all city drains lead to rivers. There is a common drainage for sewerage as well as storm waters. So the same drains also carry monsoon water to the rivers. In heavy monsoons, there is some ground water recharge but most of it is a runoff.

Groundwater depletion due to agriculture in the rural and sewerage contamination of natural water bodies like lakes and rivers in the urban is the megalith of a problem.

What is the solution?

The silver lining is that we are still 70% rural. As we develop these areas, we can do urbanization differently. Instead of huge sprawling and congested metros, development can be more spread out to smaller Ecosystems. Some time back we announced an SEZ policy for setting up industries in remote parts of the country but it met with stiff opposition. Here, it needs to be understood that in a post industrial world, agriculture can not support huge population bases as basic commodities do not fetch high prices. The age belongs to value added goods and services. Worldwide, agriculture contributes to mere 4% of the world’s GDP.  So the fate of the farming community is to be out of it.

However, instead of copying the Chinese SEZ model and create highly polluting concrete jungles, we could adopt a different approach to development the objective of which is not GDP growth but sustainable ecosystems. We should not repeat the mistakes of the present metros. Instead we could develop smaller townships out of villages. The first building block of urbanization ought to be water and we could start by developing huge lakes around which we settle these townships. The industrial and human effluents should have a clear direction – away from the lake. Nothing should fall into it – treated or untreated. Instead it should be taken in an outward direction for waste treatment or waste to energy projects. The treated water could also be used for horticulture. We need to create orchards and wetlands all around such townships. Farming itself should be modernized with amalgamation of farms that can use scientific methods as well as conserve water.

This will be a slower approach to development as opposed to simply acquiring land and giving it to industries. That is pure industrialization, which is needed for creating employment opportunities but unless we integrate it with environment friendly measures, it is not development.

For the existing cities and towns too we need to lay down a drainage network which flows outwards not into the river. Even the present drains can be made to flow in the opposite directions. Actually they are man-made and have no natural flow towards the river. The IL&FS department does a lot of de-silting to ensure that the drains flow into the rivers. If de-silting is done at the opposite ends instead, the same drains could be made to flow outwards where we could treat them outside the cities and find use of effluents in horticulture or waste to energy projects.

All of the above will not be easy and would need public will as much as political will. Communication with people is key – on the one hand we should use audiovisual communication to share this vision with the rural populace and on the other introduce Water as a subject in schools and colleges where people become aware of the need to conserve this true elixir of life. And no kidding ourselves, this sort of development will take 10 – 15 years to flourish and will be a painstaking task but there are no short cuts to progress and a better country; we will have to take the road less traveled.

Water, our greatest scarcity could become our basic foundation of sustainable and holistic development – if we make it our focal point!