Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

Dr B K Mukhopadhyay (The author is a Professor of Management and Economics, formerly at IIBM (RBI) Guwahati. He can be contacted at m. bibhas@gmail.

com) Dr. Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay(The author, international award-winning development and management economist, formerly a Gold Medalist in Economics at Gauhati University)In India, though accessibility to drinking water has increased considerably during the last decade in particular, yet around 10 per cent of the rural and urban population still does not have access to regular safe drinking water. During critical summer, especially, the condition goes from bad to worse in many parts of the country – still! Excessive and unsustainable extraction of groundwater to meet agriculture, industrial and domestic demands is steadily harming rural and urban settlements.

The World Bank believes that the key problems in India’s water sector include data secrecy, competition for resources, too much focus on increasing supply, and not enough management. the total cost of environmental damage in India, as per World Bank estimates, amounts to 4. 5 percent of GDP, and of this 59 percent results from the health impact of water pollution! The 2019 UN-Water initiative called ‘Leaving No One Behind’ suggested how improvements in water resources management and access to water supply and sanitation services are essential to addressing various social and economic inequities.

Water scarcity is entwined with environmental protection, poverty alleviation, and promoting development; globally more than 2. 5 billion people live with the most abysmal standards of hygiene and sanitation. Globally.

. . Wastage of water and the absence of regular clean water supply not only to the burgeoning metropolis but to huge rural regions also simultaneously coexist.

One-third of the US and one-fifth of Spain still suffer from water stress. Central Africa’s Lake Chad, supporting the very life of 30 million plus people, has already shrunk to one-tenth of its former size, the negative contributory factors being climate change, drought, poor management, and overuse, among others. Water and life.

Synonymous. This particular resource is the most crucial factor considered from the point of view of environmental protection, poverty alleviation, and promoting development in as much as now globally more than two and half billion people live in the most abysmal standards of hygiene and sanitation. The obscene wastage of water and absence of regular clean water supply not only to the burgeoning metropolis but to a large number of rural regions also simultaneously coexists.

The immediate need is thus there to invest in a reliable, proven, and advanced water purification system that guarantees the public – in both rural and urban areas – safe and pure drinking water at all times. State-of-the-art technology available on this score must be extensively made use of in a time-bound manner to protect the triple bottom (planet, people, profit) from threats coming from various pollution forms. In 2012, La Soif Du Monde (aka ‘A Thirsty World’) and ‘The Fight for Water: A Farm Worker Struggle’ were two documentaries based on true stories hinting at the future of water (or the lack of it) and how communities struggle for it.

Erik Stokstad, an environment specialist, once said, “H2O – is there any other molecule so vital, and so problematic, for people?”. The UN estimates that around 1. 2 billion people, i.

e. , 20 per cent of the world population, live in areas where the limits of sustainable water use have already either been reached or breached. It is high time that the water issue sits as a priority on the global agenda, not just on water-dedicated institutions, in light of the dire reality.

There may be still enough water for all of us only if we could keep it clean and share the same. Every year, several million people die from drinking contaminated water. To help address these challenges related to freshwater, scientists in many disciplines are applying new tools and techniques.

One way has been to understand the impact of climate change on water quantity and quality and predict future needs and threats. Another way has been to explore making use of water—for drinking or industrial purposes—from sources that are otherwise considered unusable. An emerging area is the ecological impact of activities related to the energy industry such as fracking or carbon sequestration.

Other researchers are trying to increase the efficiency of farms and factories – the biggest consumers. Water scarcity already poses a great threat to economic growth, human rights, and national security. Water Stress and Water Management Water use has been increasing globally by about 1% every year since the 1980s, contributed by population growth, socio-economic development, and changing consumption patterns.

Global water demand has been set to continue rising at a similar pace until 2050, accounting for an increase of 20-30% above the current level of water use, with increased demand from both industrial and domestic sectors. About 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress, and 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity for at least a month every year. Water stress is defined as the ratio between water withdrawals (i.

e. , domestic, agricultural, and industrial water uses) and available renewable water supplies. Water scarcity means scarcity in availability (i.

e. , physical shortage) due to the failure of institutions to ensure a regular supply or due to a lack of adequate infrastructure. Safe drinking water and sanitation are basic human rights, they are indispensable to sustaining healthy livelihoods and fundamental in maintaining the dignity of all human beings.

International Human Rights law obliges states to work towards achieving universal access to water and sanitation for all, without discrimination, while prioritising those most in need. Fulfillment of these requires that services be safely available, physically accessible, and equitably affordable. Water availability depends upon the amount of water physically available, and also how it is stored, managed, and allocated to various users.

It, therefore, relates to surface water and groundwater management, alongside water recycling and reuse. Water management for smallholder family farmers needs to consider both rainfed and irrigated agriculture. Approximately 80% of the global cropland is rainfed, and 60% of the world’s food is produced on rainfed land.

Strategies for the Water Problem Water recycling and finding better ways to remove salt from seawater holds the key. Population growth could cause global demand for water to outpace supply by mid-century if current levels of consumption continue, according to a recent study. Periods of increased demand for water – often coinciding with population growth or other major demographic and social changes – were followed by periods of rapid innovation of new water technologies that helped end or ease any shortages.

Using a delayed-feedback mathematical model that analyses historic data to help project future trends, some studies have identified a regularly recurring pattern of global water use in recent centuries. Based on this recurring pattern, researchers from Duke University predict a similar period of innovation could occur in the coming decades. Cut to Credits! Population growth would put further put strains on the per capita availability of water.

Efforts to enhance the drinking water supply must move at a greater speed so as to cover all of the villages with adequate potable water connection/supply. Technology would play a bigger role in such a context to meet people’s basic needs in a sustained manner. Naturally, protecting freshwater reserves, watershed development, chemical treatments following the safety norms, and tackling arsenic and fluoride contamination, among others, could give rich dividends.

Ban Ki-moon once said, “we need to begin thinking about better strategies for managing water – for using it efficiently and sharing it fairly. This means partnerships involving not just governments but civil society groups, individuals, and businesses”. The responsibility lies equally with the Government as well as the private sector – checking the unrestricted exploitation of groundwater, encouraging planned urbanisation, optimisation of use, and restricting the flow of effluents from industrial units to the rivers, with stricter governance.

Nurturing new scientific knowledge to understand the evolution of water systems that involve the relationship between man and nature; integrating local knowledge into scientific research to address user needs, and putting in place more effective mechanisms to translate scientific knowledge into societal action. The challenges in addressing the water-food-climate change nexus could be mitigated if collaborative approaches are taken up backed by political will, market mechanisms, and innovative technology. For example, market forces could work well under a cap-and-trade approach similar to those applied to carbon dioxide.

Favoring market forces to play a role in the management of scarce water-defining the value of water-positively aids to take a big leap forward. Developing an inclusive institutional structure to establish multi-stakeholder dialogue and cooperation is essential to ensuring equitable access to sustainable water supply and sanitation services. When the government’s role is geared towards policy setting and regulation, the actual provision of services is carried out by non-state actors or independent departments.

Well-functioning accountability mechanisms help institutions with sufficient capacity fulfil their mandates to monitor and enforce the obligations of the service provider. .