WATER

The battle for water

BRAHMA CHELLANEY

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There is a popular, tongue-in-cheek saying in America — attributed to the writer Mark Twain, who lived through the early phase of the California Water Wars — that “whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over.” It highlights the consequences, even if somewhat apocryphally, as ever-scarcer water resources create a parched world. California currently is reeling under its worst drought in modern times.

Among the issues that will shape our future world are water and other natural resources, demographics, and sustainable economic growth, as well as an accelerated weaponisation of science and other geopolitical elements. A combination of these factors will create winners and losers in the world.

Adequate availability of water, food and energy is critical to global security. The sharpening, international, geopolitical competition over natural resources has turned some strategic resources into engines of power struggle and triggered price volatility. The geopolitics of natural resources promises to get murkier.

Water — the sustainer of life and livelihoods — is already the world’s most exploited natural resource. With nature’s freshwater-renewable capacity lagging behind humanity’s current rate of utilisation, tomorrow’s water is being used to meet today’s need.

Consequently, the resources of shared rivers, aquifers and lakes have become the target of rival appropriation plans. Securing a larger portion of the shared water has fostered increasing competition between countries and provinces.

Impact on ecosystems

More ominously, the struggle for water is exacerbating impacts on the earth’s ecosystems. Degradation of water resources has resulted in aquatic ecosystems losing half their biodiversity since just the mid-1970s. Groundwater depletion, for its part, is affecting natural stream-flows, groundwater-fed wetlands and lakes, and related ecosystems.

If resources like water are degraded and depleted, environmental refugees will follow. Sana'a city in Yemen risks becoming the first capital city to run out of water. If Bangladesh bears the main impact of China’s damming of the Brahmaputra, the resulting exodus of thirsty refugees will compound India’s security challenges. Internal resource conflicts are often camouflaged as civil wars. Sudan’s Darfur conflict, for example, arose from water and grassland scarcity.

The United Nations in 2010 recognised access to safe, affordable water and sanitation as a human right. Yet the reality remains stark: More people today own or use a mobile phone than have regular access to a toilet. Unclean water is the greatest killer on the globe, claiming thousands of children’s lives every day, yet a fifth of humankind still lacks easy access to potable water. More than half of the global population currently lives under water stress — a figure projected to increase to two-thirds during the next decade.

Source of increasing conflict

The risks of overt conflicts over water are increasing. Water wars in a political and economic sense are already being waged in several regions, including by building dams on international rivers and by resorting to coercive diplomacy to prevent such construction. Examples include China’s frenetic upstream dam building in its borderlands and downriver Egypt’s threats of military reprisals against the ongoing Ethiopian construction of a large dam on the Blue Nile.

A report reflecting the joint judgment of U.S. intelligence agencies has warned that the use of water as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism would become more likely in the next decade. The InterAction Council, comprising more than 30 former heads of state or government, has called for urgent action, saying some countries battling severe water shortages risk failing. The U.S. State Department, for its part, has upgraded water to “a central U.S. foreign policy concern.”

Decisions in many countries on where to set up new manufacturing or energy plants are increasingly being constrained by inadequate local water availability. Where availability is already low, a decision to establish a new plant often triggers local protests because it is likely to spur greater competition over scarce water resources. One such example is the POSCO steel plant in Odisha.

The seriously water-stressed economies, stretching from South Korea and India to Iran and Egypt, are paying a high price for their water problems. The yearly global economic losses from water shortages are conservatively estimated at $260 billion. South Korea is encouraging its corporate giants to produce water-intensive items — from food to steel — for the home market in overseas lands. China, facing growing water paucity in its arid north, risks slipping into the category of water-stressed states.

Water is a renewable but finite resource. Nature’s fixed water-replenishment capacity limits the world’s renewable freshwater resources to about 43,000 billion cubic meters per year — the maximum theoretical amount of water regenerated under natural conditions, excluding human influence and the effects of climate change. But the human population has doubled since 1970 alone, while the global economy has grown even faster.

Major increases in water demand, however, are being driven not merely by economic and demographic growth but also by energy, manufacturing, and food-production needs to meet rising human-consumption levels. Lifestyle changes, for example, have spurred increasing per capita water consumption in the form of industrial and agricultural products. Take the United States: Although its per capita water resources are more than six times larger than India’s, water disputes have gradually spread from its west to its east.

Globally, consumption growth is the single biggest driver of water stress. Rising incomes, for example, have promoted changing diets, especially a greater intake of meat, whose production is notoriously water-intensive. Production of meat, on average, is 10 times more water-intensive than plant-based calories and proteins. If the world stopped diverting food to feed livestock and produce biofuels, it could not only abolish hunger but also feed a four-billion-larger population, according to a University of Minnesota study.

In China, South Korea and Southeast Asia, traditional diets have been transformed in the last one generation alone, becoming much meatier. The only silver lining for India’s dismal water situation is the fact that its per capita meat consumption remains the lowest in the world, with a large segment of its population vegetarian. Had India’s consumptive profile been similar to that of the U.S. — the world’s largest consumer of meat, energy and water — it probably would have become one of the planet’s most-parched states.

Diet change impacts

Compounding the diet-change impacts on the global water situation is the increasing body mass index (BMI) of humans in recent decades, with the prevalence of obesity doubling since the 1980s. Obesity rates in important economies now range from 33 per cent in the U.S. and 26.9 per cent in Britain to 5.7 per cent in China and 1.9 per cent in India.

Heavier citizens make heavier demands on natural resources, especially water and energy. They also cause much greater greenhouse-gas emissions through their bigger food and transport needs. For example, greater car use is common among the overweight. A study published in the British journal,BMC Public Health found that if the rest of the world had the same average BMI as the U.S., it would be equivalent to adding nearly an extra billion people to the global population, with major implications for the world’s water, food and energy situations.

The issue thus isn’t just about how many mouths there are to feed but also about how much excess body fat there is on the planet. The point to note is that a net population increase usually translates into greater human capital to create innovations, power economic growth, and support the elderly. But a net increase in body weight only contributes to state liability and greater water stress.

Sharing and settlement mechanisms

This background helps explain why water is becoming the world’s next major security and economic challenge. Averting water wars demands rules-based cooperation, water sharing and dispute-settlement mechanisms. However, most of the world’s transnational basins lack any cooperative arrangement, and there is still no international water law in force. Worse yet, unilateralist appropriation of shared water resources is endemic where autocrats rule.

With the era of cheap, bountiful water having been replaced by increasing supply-and-quality constraints, many international investors are beginning to view water as the new oil. Looking ahead, water shortages are not only going to intensify and spread, but users also will have to increasingly pay more for their water supply.

This double whammy can be mitigated only by smart water management and sustainable use of scarce water resources. New and emerging technologies ought to be leveraged to innovatively manage resources and develop non-traditional supply sources, including through public-private partnerships. Water, food and energy must be integrated in a holistic policy framework. The world can ill-afford to waste time — or water.

Make no mistake: Water poses a more intractable problem for the world than peak oil, economic slowdown and other oft-cited challenges. Addressing this core problem holds the key to dealing with other challenges because of water’s nexuses with global warming, energy shortages, stresses on food supply, population pressures, pollution, environmental degradation, global epidemics and natural disasters. Effective water management can help transform economies and power security.

Wastewater treatment technology that could reduce metal pollutants

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), a multi-disciplinary research institute, has developed an innovative eco-friendly wastewater treatment plant based on a technology that could improve efficiency as well as reduce costs significantly. 

The wastewater treatment plant, which utilises emergent wetland plants and micro-organisms present in wastewater, is operational on the IARI’s Delhi campus where three cells are treating 2.2 million litres of water per day sourced from the Krishn Kunj colony.

IARI scientists pointed out that while conventional wastewater treatment plants degrade only organic pollutants and do not reduce metal pollutants, the new technology will reduce metal pollutants present in waste water. 

 Its energy requirement is 1 per cent of conventional wastewater treatment plants use as it does not require operating aerators 24X7, but relies on vegetation and plants to do this,

“We have engineered the natural treatment processes and have relied on solar radiation, native micro-organisms and plants, and have integrated a “Cash for Trash” business model in this leading to an annual saving of about Rs.1.8 lakh,. 

IARI experts said that the waste water treatment plant can be harvested every two months to yield 12 tonnes of dry biomass per annum per cell that can be transformed to 3,000 sq. m. particle boards, which sell for Rs.200-250 sq. m. or sold to particle board manufacturers at Rs.2,000 per tonnes as dry matter.

According to the IARI, freshwater availability per capita in the country decreased from 5,177 cubic metre in 1951 to 1,869 cubic metre in 2001 to 1,588 cubic metre in 2010. The IARI calculates this may further drop to 1,140 cubic metre by 2050. Class I and II cities, which account for 72 per cent of the population, are generating 98 litres per capita per day. In Delhi, users generate a much higher amount of 220 litres per capita per day. Of current total availability 85 per cent water is diverted for irrigation. About 70 to 80 per cent of water supplied to homes gets converted into waste-water.

At present, as per the Central Pollution Control Board, Class I and II cities generate 40 billion litres of water per day, while installed sewage treatment capacity is 30 per cent of this.

Water Conservation in Industries

The population of India is estimated to reach between 1.5 - 1.8 billion by year 2050. To avoid our country from becoming a water scarce country, availability of 3060 billion m³ fresh water is required. The average annual surface water flows in India has been estimated as 1869 billion m³ of which only 690 billion m³ can be utilized considering monsoon climate and topographical and geological reasons. The available groundwater resource due to various recharges is 432 billion m³. The country will be water stressed even if the total available water i.e. 2301 billion m³ is taken into account. Ensuring uninterrupted supply of water of adequate quality and quantity at affordable cost will be the biggest challenge for the municipalities and industries due to the huge demand and pollution caused by discharge of untreated or partially treated used waters.

In recent years, with the development of industries, increase in population and improved living standard, demand of water has remarkably increased. Municipalities are not able to provide uninterrupted water supply to the citizens. The communities in many Indian cities have to purchase drinking water at a high cost of Rs. 50 – 150 per m³. Since water has become a scarce commodity, availability of water of adequate quality and quantity at affordable cost is possibly the biggest challenge faced by the industries today. It is necessary for all the industries to positively implement all kind of programs and measures for effective utilization of water resources.

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Chennai for example have invested large sum of money in desalination of Sea water and in laying a pipeline to convey the desalinated water all the way to their refinery. Earlier, when faced with a severe water shortage, the refinery was the first to invest in a plant to recover water from treated municipal sewage and effluent from the refinery. Madras Fertilizers Limited followed their example. In Mumbai, Rashtriya Chemical Fertilizers have also set up a plant to recover water from municipal sewage and used the recovered water for cooling applications.

Water can no longer be taken for granted.  It needs to be managed judiciously through measures to conserve, recover, and reuse, especially in industries that consume large quantities of water. Water is used in the industry for a number of applications that include cooling, steam production to generate power and other process applications besides drinking and sanitation.

Water Audit

The first step in Water Conservation and Management Programme is comprehensive water Audit to arrive at a realistic water balance for the entire factory and colony. Water audits at regular intervals help the management to take stock of the situation and act before the problem escalates and threatens closure due to non availability of water. The objectives of carrying out a water audit is not only to identify areas of excessive  use (and its abuse) but also assess the quality of water being supplied for each application and compare it with the actual requirement and optimize the cost of treating water. This involves following exercise-

·        Measurement of water consumption at user points by calibrated instruments. Flow through closed pipes can be measured by an Ultrasonic flow measuring instrument and flow through open channels through V-Notch weirs.

·        The quality and quantity of effluents generated from each section should also be assessed. Conscious efforts shall be made to effect savings in cost of treating the effluent.

·        The next step is to establish bench marks for water consumption based on international practices for similar industries and identify areas of excess consumption.

·        An action plan should then be drawn for reducing the consumption of water in those areas. With good housekeeping discipline and perseverance it should be possible to achieve the results.

Conservation of Water for Cooling

A major portion of industrial water is utilized for cooling applications in majority of industries and hence provides an opportunity to conserve the water by optimizing the operations of cooling towers and following the best practices as given below-

·        It is essential to check the cooling water treatment programme, which enables us to operate the tower at optimum cycles of concentration. The quantity of make-up water decreases significantly with increasing cycles of concentration. Water meters should be installed at cooling water make-up as well as blow down line.

·        Use of cooling water for other purposes like floor washing should be stopped. There should be no overflows from the basin.

·        One should also look for any leak through the bottom floor of the tower basin and if detected the leak should be plugged during the annual shut down.

·        Loss of water due to evaporation is around 2% of the water in circulation and hence in areas of water scarcity, the feasibility of using air cooled towers should be explored.

·        Side stream filtration should be adopted to keep cooling water free of suspended solids. Backwash water from side stream filter can be recovered by installing a plate type clarifier. The quantum of water recovered can be significant in large industries like fertilizer, steel etc.

Water Conservation in Pretreatment Plant

Almost all the plants utilizing surface water will have a clarifier and filter beds.  Blow down from the clarifier must be treated through the sludge thickener and sludge dewatering unit (centrifuge / filter press). The clear water from sludge thickener and the filtrate from sludge dewatering unit should be pumped back to the clarifier. This will not only help in water conservation but also reduces the cost incurred in sludge handling and disposal.

The entire quantity of water used for backwashing the filters must be collected and returned to the clarifier.

Water Conservation in Softening Plants

Softening plants offer scope both for water conservation as well as for a reduction in salt consumption by opting for salt recycling. Salt recycle is effectively used in almost all the power stations in Maharashtra as the entire quantity of water used for cooling is softened and the salt consumption is high. For salt recycling, it will be necessary to install an additional brine measuring tank (BMT 2) identical to the existing one (BMT 1) and modify the frontal piping.

Part of the water used for slow rinsing and practically the entire quantity used for final rinsing can be recovered and reused partly for preparation of salt solution and partly for slow rinse. Salt recovery can be made by collecting the latter half of the effluent during salt injection in a separate brine measuring tank and using it to partially regenerate the resin during the next cycle.

Water Conservation in Demineralization Plant

Demineralization by the ion exchange process generates strong effluents which require dilution with fresh water or other streams low in dissolved solids prior to discharge. However water can be recovered from the effluents generated in a DM plant by installing a water recovery plant for reuse in the plant. Some plants use the strongly acidic effluents in cooling water for pH control in place of acid. There is considerable scope to conserve water in DM plant which can be achieved by following measures-

·        Almost all the final rinse water during Mixed Bed regeneration can be recycled back to the filtered water tank. Part of the water used for final rinsing can be recycled back to the raw water tank as soon as its conductively reaches the value equal to that of raw water.

·        Good housekeeping can significantly contribute to conservation of water in a DM plant. Leaky valves and taps must be fixed immediately. Water flowing through pH and conductivity sensors must be routed to the raw water tank.

·        Whenever rinse water volumes increase, the reasons for long rinse should be ascertained. If it is established that the problem is due to fouling agent in water, action must be taken to fix the problem either by addition of some equipment or change over to non fouling resins or both.

·        Presence of non-reactive (colloidal) silica in boiler feed water high pressure boilers may result in increased blow-down. In case presence of excessive amount of colloidal silica is suspected it may be prudent to remove it from boiler feed water by installing an Ultra filtration unit after the Mixed Bed.  In case the raw water is high on organics as well, the ultra filtration unit may be located ahead of MB unit to take care of both issues.

Treatment of Condensate

Conservation of condensate not only saves water but also the huge cost incurred in high purity water production and chemical conditioning. This can be achieved by arresting the leakages in the lines and installing suitable treatment units (condensate polishing units) for removal of undesirable components. Condensates with traces of hydrocarbons can be treated through the use of Oil Coalescers or specially designed Activated Carbon Filters

Effluent Treatment

Use of water in the industry produces an effluent which needs to be treated before it can be discharged into a public sewer or a receiving stream. Treatment of effluent is necessary to protect the receiving water bodies and ensure safe water availability to the downstream habitation. Moreover, the effluent after minimal treatment can be utilized for low end applications. Efforts should be made to treat, recycle, and reuse the effluent in the premises so that the industry could approach towards zero liquid discharge concepts and uninterrupted water supply for production can be ensured. Often it is possible to recover a valuable byproduct for reuse in the process and remaining effluent is now more amenable for recovery of water economically.

In Tirupur, group of industries had installed a combined effluent treatment plant for treating their effluents with an option to recover the salt (Na₂SO₄) and water which is again recycled back to the process. This approach not only solved a potential problem of high TDS effluent disposal but also resulted in practically ‘Zero-Discharge’ with significant savings in the cost of treatment of effluent.

Water Conservation in Offices and Residential Colony

As far as possible, electronically operated proximity devices or at least press to open type of valves should be provided to reduce wastage. These types of installations result in water consumption of around 30%.

Supply of potable water to residential colony and other user points should be under gravity by installing water tanks on roof tops. Supply under gravity (through overhead storage tanks) will minimize wastage through splashing. Again restricting the supply to fix periods will also help in conserving water.

Almost all colonies housing the factory employees will have a dedicated sewage treatment plant. Water can be recovered by installing a tertiary treatment plant and can used for low end applications like green belt development, gardening, flushing the toilets etc., thus conserving fresh water.  Needless to say this will involve separate storage and plumbing to ensure that there is no accidental contamination with potable water in other lines like washbasins and shower fountains. The recovered water can also be used as cooling tower make-up by installing membrane Bio reactor that will produce clear filtered water.

Rain Water Harvesting

Rain water harvesting is yet another opportunity for the industries to ensure that the ground water gets recharged and the borewells do not run dry. The system is relatively inexpensive and the benefits are many. Water falling on the roof top is collected through channels, filtered and infiltration wells.

Water is a scarce resource and it needs to be treated with all the respect it deserves. Conservation, recovery and reuse must be practiced by all industries on a continuous basis to ensure availability of adequate quantity of fresh water for use. With the available technologies the fresh water consumption can be minimized and is not very much difficult. Future efforts must be to maximize recycling of water by adopting the latest technologies available.

Water Conservation: A Need of the Hour

Rapid industrialization and urbanization coupled with continuous decline in per capita availability of water is putting a lot of pressure on the available water resources in the country. As per report of standing sub-committee for assessment of availability and requirements of water for diverse uses in the country, the future water requirements for meeting the demands of various sections in the country for the year 2025 and 2050 have been estimated to be 1093 BCM and 1447 BCM respectively. The increasing gap between water availability and demand highlight the need for conservation of water. The National Water Policy also lays stress on conservation of water. It has been stipulated that efficiency of utilization in all the diverse uses of water should be optimized and an awareness of water as a scarce resource should be fostered.

With per capita availability of water depleting at a faster pace, the Government has declared the Year 2013 as Water Conservation Year under which awareness programmes are being launched among masses, especially children, on water conservation.

Water conservation is also the key objective of the National Water Mission which is one of the eight National Missions under the National Action Plan for Climate Change. This envisages conservation, minimising wastage and ensuring equitable distribution of water resources across and within states through integrated water resources development and management.

There is a need for water conservation, not only to restore the fast deteriorating eco-system of the country but also to meet the inevitable emergency of shortage even for drinking and domestic water in near future. The following points are to be pondered upon to plan strategies to meet the crisis:

·        Water is a finite resource and cannot be replaced/duplicated.

·        Water resources are theoretically ‘renewable’ through hydrological cycle. However, what is renewable is only the quantity, but pollution, contamination, climate change, temporal and seasonal variations have affected the water quality and reduced the amount of ‘usable water’.

·        Only 2.7% of the water on earth is fresh.

·        The ground water levels are declining very fast.

·        Rainfall is unevenly distributed over time and space.

·        Increased demand in coastal areas is threatening the fresh water aquifers with seawater intrusion.

·        In inland saline areas, the fresh water is becoming saline due to excessive withdrawal of ground water.

·        Water conservation practices in urban areas can reduce the demand as much as by one third, in addition to minimizing pollution of surface and ground water resources.

·        Watershed programmes tended to concentrate on harvesting rainwater through surface structures.

·        There is a need to look at surface and ground water holistically and prepare a conjunctive use plan.

Action Plan for Water Conservation

Conservation of Surface Water Resources

All efforts should be made to fully utilize the monsoon runoff and store rainwater at all probable storage sites. In addition to creating new storages, it is essential to renovate the existing tanks and water bodies by de-silting and repairs. The revival of traditional water storage techniques and structures should also be given due priority.

Conservation of Ground Water Resources

Ground water is an important component of hydrological cycle. It supports the springs in hilly regions and the river flow of all peninsular rivers during the non-monsoon period. For sustainability of ground water resources it is necessary to arrest the ground water outflows by a) Construction of sub-surface dams, b) Watershed management, c) Treatment of upstream areas for development of springs, and d) Skimming of freshwater outflows in coastal areas and islands.

Protection of Water Quality

The rapid increase in the density of human population in certain pockets of the country as a result of urbanization and industrialization is making adverse impact on the quality of both surface and ground water resources. Demand for water is increasing on one hand and on the other hand the quantity of ‘utilizable water resources’ is decreasing due to human intervention in the form of pollution and/or contamination of fresh water. Thus the protection of existing surface and ground water resources from pollution and contamination is a very vital component of water conservation.

Action Points for Water Conservation

An important component of water conservation involves minimizing water losses, prevention of water wastage and increasing efficiency in water use. The action points towards water conservation in different sectors of water use are as follows:

Irrigation Sector

Important action points towards water conservation in the irrigation sector are as follows:

·                    Performance improvement of irrigation system and water utilization;

·                    Proper and timely system maintenance;

·                    Rehabilitation and restoration of damaged /and silted canal systems to enable them to carry designed discharge;

·                    Selective lining of canal and distribution systems, on techno-economic consideration, to reduce seepage losses;

·                    Restoration / provision of appropriate control structures in the canal system with efficient and reliable mechanism;

·                    Conjunctive use of surface and ground water to be resorted to, specially in the areas where there is threat to water logging;

·                    Adopting drip and sprinkler systems of irrigation for crops, where such systems are suitable;

·                    Adopting low cost innovative water saving technology;

·                    Renovation and modernization of existing irrigation systems;

·                    Preparation of a realistic and scientific system operation plan keeping in view the availability of water and crop water requirements;

·                    Execution of operation plan with reliable and adequate water measuring structures.

·                    Revision of cropping pattern in the event of change in water availability;

·                    Utilisation of return flow of irrigation water through appropriate planning;

·                    Imparting trainings to farmers about consequences of using excess water for irrigation;

·                    Rationalization of water rate to make the system self-sustainable;

·                    Formation of Water Users Associations and transfer of management to them;

·                    Promoting multiple use of water;

·                    Introducing night irrigation practice to minimize evaporation loss;

·                    In arid regions crops having longer root such as linseed, berseem, lucerne guar, gini grass, etc may be grown as they can sustain in dry hot weather;

·                    Assuring timely and optimum irrigation for minimizing water loss and water-logging;

·                    Introducing rotational cropping pattern for balancing fertility of soil and natural control of pests;

·                    Modern effective and reliable communication systems may be installed at all strategic locations in the irrigation command and mobile communication systems may also be provided to personnel involved with running and maintenance of systems. Such an arrangement will help in quick transmission of messages and this in turn will help in great deal in effecting saving of water by way of taking timely action in plugging canal breaches, undertaking repair of systems and also in canal operation particularly when water supply is needed to be stopped due to sudden adequate rainfall in the particular areas of the command.

·                    With a view to control over irrigation to the fields on account of un-gated water delivery systems, all important outlets should be equipped with flow control mechanism to optimize irrigation water supply.

·                    As far as possible with a view to make best use of soil nutrients and water holding capacity of soils, mixed cropping such as cotton with groundnut, sugarcane with black gram or green gram or soyabean may be practised.

·                    It has been experienced that with scientific use of mulching in irrigated agriculture, moisture retention capacity of soil can be increased to the extent of 50 per cent and this in turn may increase yield up to 75 per cent.

Domestic and Municipal Sector

Important action points for water conservation in domestic and municipal sector are as follows:

·                    Action towards reduction of losses in conveyance;

·                    Management of supply through proper meter as per rational demand;

·                    Intermittent domestic water supply may be adopted to check its wasteful use.

·                    Realization of appropriate water charges so that the system can be sustainable and wastage is reduced;

·                    Creation of awareness to make attitudinal changes;

·                    Evolving norms for water use for various activities and designing of optimum water supply system accordingly;

·                    Modification in design of accessories such as flushing system, tap etc. to reduce water requirement to optimal level. Wherever necessary, BIS code may be revised;

·                    Possibility for recycling and reuse of water for purposes like gardening, flushing to toilets, etc. may be explored. Wastewater of certain categories can be reused for other activities as per feasibility;

·                    Optimum quantity of water required for waste disposal to be worked out;

·                    In public buildings the taps etc. can be fitted with sensors to reduce water losses;

Industrial Sector

Important action points for water conservation in industrial sector are as follows:

·                    Setting-up of norms for water budgeting;

·                    Modernization of industrial process to reduce water requirement;

·                    Recycling water with a re-circulating cooling system can greatly reduce water use by using the same water to perform several cooling operations;

·                    Three cooling water conservation approaches are evaporative cooling, ozonation and air heat exchange. The ozonation cooling water approach can result in a five-fold reduction in blow down when compared to traditional chemical treatment and should be considered as an option for increasing water savings in a cooling tower.

·                    The use of de-ionized water in reusing can be reduced without affecting production quality by eliminating some plenum flushes, converting from a continuous flow to an intermittent flow system and improving control on the use.

·                    The reuse of de-ionized water may also be considered for other uses because it may still be better than supplied municipal water.

·                    The wastewater should be considered for use for gardening etc.

·                    Proper processing of effluents by industrial units to adhere to the norms for disposal;

·                    Rational pricing of industrial water requirement to ensure consciousness / action for adopting water saving technologies;

Regulatory Mechanism for Water Conservation

Ground water is an unregulated resource in the country with no price tag. The cost of construction of a ground water abstraction structure is the only investment. Unrestricted withdrawal in many areas has resulted in decline of ground water levels. Supply side management of water resources is very important for conserving this vital resource for a balanced use. An effective way is through energy pricing restriction on supply and providing incentives to help in conservation of water. Action plan, in this regard, may include the following:

·                    Rationalizing pricing policy of water in urban and rural areas. Industries should be discouraged to exploit ground water with high price slabs.

·                    Restriction on new construction of ground water structures in all the over exploited and dark blocks of the country;

·                    Metering of all ground water abstraction structures;

·                    Controlled supply of electricity and downsizing of pump capacity in rural areas;

·                    Regulating the water trading or selling;

·                    Providing incentives for adoption of rainwater harvesting;

·                    Modification in building bye-laws in urban areas to make it mandatory to adopt rainwater harvesting.

Water conservation is prime and challenging concern. Numerous types of water conservation techniques are available in the country. The scientists are developing new techniques, but there are gaps on the application of the appropriate technologies, which needs to be removed. Due to lack of proper operation and maintenance in irrigation, industry and domestic water distribution system, there is huge loss of water. Hence emphasis should be given to improve the O&M system.

For developing the water resources, age-old traditional water conservation methods need to be judiciously adopted in conjunction with the latest modern conservation technology. Keeping this in view, rain water harvesting, revival of traditional water storages/ponds, check dams and other similar structures need to be adopted. Building byelaws should be suitably modified to introduce mandatory roof top rain water harvesting.

In order to conserve precious fresh water, recycling of waste water may be incorporated wherever feasible. Dual water supply system, one for treated wastewater and the other for fresh water may be introduced so that treated waste water can be used for secondary purposes such as toilets flushing, gardening, agriculture and selective industries etc. New urban colonies, big hotels industries and other similar establishments should have mandatory dual water supply systems.

Cropping pattern and crops water requirement varies from time to time due to the dynamic socio-economic condition of the people and the region in addition to geo-morphological, climatic and metrological changes. Hence, for effective management, appropriate base line data for water demand under different situations needs to be brought out for optimum crop water management and field activities considering effective rainfall in different physiological stages.

Night irrigation practice may be introduced to minimize evaporation loss thus conserving irrigation water. Timely and need based irrigation should be done to minimize loss of water. Further, for boosting productivity, rotational cropping pattern may be introduced for balancing fertility of soil and natural pest control.

Various water savings devices are being developed under various ongoing R&D programmes. These devices should be suitably adopted in the system.

Mass awareness campaign should be conducted regularly to cover all stakeholders, including service providers and consumers, for water conservation in irrigation, domestic and industrial sectors. Special attention must be given so that the fruits of the campaign must reach the children, housewives and farmers effectively.

Forget Food Security: India is Heading towards Water Insecurity

No Secure Future for the “Hunger Republic” in India

India is among the most food insecure countries in the world and despite the ordinance on the Food Security Bill (July 9, 2013) it appears heading towards a still more insecure future. The so-called impressive GDP growth of 6 – 9 percent during the past decade has little relevance when millions of poor are still struggling with poverty and hunger. With numbers beyond the US population of 350 million, people of the largest “hunger republic of the world” inside India must feel satisfied at being able to use mobile phones or looking at the pictures of air conditioned “Delhi Metro”. The irony, however, is that the latest cell phone models or the “world class” metro trains in a few metropolitan towns can’t feed empty stomachs; they can at best make fun of the poor or make them feel left-out.

The recently launched Global Food Security Index (GFSI) estimates that in 2012, about 224 million Indians (19 percent of the total population) are undernourished and 25 percent of the world’s malnourished children live in India. In the GFSI ranking, India is at the 66thplace in the list of 105 countries. With the largest numbers of world’s poor and one-quarter of world’s malnourished children living in the country, India can only be compared with the neighboring Bangladesh or the sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to food security or hunger issues. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called it a “national shame.” Despite elaborate food procurement and distribution machinery, the lives of the poor fail to improve in any meaningful way, due to widespread corruption along with rising population.

The Global Hunger Index report of 2012 ranks India 65th of 79 countries. This is extremely alarming for those who have seen poverty themselves and for the poorest among them, it could be catastrophic. There is nothing in the food bill to protect them from the badly disturbed weather pattern and the sudden climatic disasters which are becoming increasingly common. They are in fact sandwiched between a callous government on one side and an increasing unpredictable life threatening climatic events on the other. They lose lives just to become statistics for the commercial media and government officials. The food bill also has nothing to counter the eminent water crisis waiting to happen in the coming years. In reality, the Ordinance on the National Food Security Bill has more to do with winning upcoming Lok Sabha election for the UPA than the poor, beyond their votes. What the poor need is an effective implementation of existing programs, not additional schemes that offer nothing better.

Climate change problem is increasingly disturbing the orderly weather pattern including the vital monsoon system. Combined with over exploited and depleting water resources in various parts of India, the future for the less fortunate millions of poor, who survive connected with agriculture, is anything but rosy. What is still worse is the fact that there is no debate on this issue. The Indian political class is as usual busy squabbling over petty trivialities and scoring minor brownie points over each other, the technocrats can at best study issues and write reports drinking bottled mineral water and for the bureaucrats water is something that comes from the taps automatically.

Global Water Scenario

The fast paced industrialization of particularly the developing world – most notably India and China – increasing urbanization and rising global population are putting enormous pressure on water resources. World population is predicted to grow from 7 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050; by then India will be the most populous nation, with about 1,650 million people from the current count of 1,230 million. Given the present scenario, it only implies severe pressure on water resources. Besides, there are other factors like overconsumption, lack of proper water management, and the increasing severity of climate change related issues. The UN Water and the FAO estimate that the global water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century.

Water scarcity can originate due to several reasons. It is physical water scarcity when there is simply not enough water to satisfy the demand. It can happen when there is severe environmental degradation, very low groundwater level, or due to unequal or inadequate water distribution system. Economic water scarcity occurs happens due to a lack of financial means to create infrastructure to tap existing water sources. Most African nations are water scarce simply because they lack financial resources to create the necessary infrastructure.

Already about 700 million people in 43 nations are facing water scarcity. The situation is only expected to worsen in the coming years as population grows and the disruptions due to the severity of climate change events increase. It is estimated that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living in water stressed conditions.

Increasing water and energy demand in the fast growing China is forcing its policymakers to plan for damming Tibetan rivers and diverting water from them to its water thirsty northern regions. The Chinese plans on the mighty Brahmaputra River are particularly worrisome for India. The fast receding Himalayan glaciers due to global warming are only going to make things worse and add to tensions between the two neighbors.

Water Scenario in India

The south-west monsoon is the most important source of water in India. About 75% annual rainfall is received during the short span of four months between June to September. The average annual rainfall in India is around 125 cm. However, there is wide variation in the rainfall distribution across the country. The areas of heavy rainfall such as the western Ghats and the Sub-Himalayan areas of the northeast, Assam, West Bengal, etc receive over 200 cm of rains annually. In contrast, the dry areas include the northern part of Kashmir, western Rajasthan, Punjab and the Deccan Plateau which get less than 50 cm rainfall.

At present India receives on average annual precipitation of about 4000 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM); this is India’s principal water resource. From this, after eliminating the natural evaporation- transpiration, only about 1869 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM) is the average annual natural flow through the rivers and aquifers. And of this, only about 1123 BCM is utilizable through the present strategies. So, there is considerable scope for inter basin water transfer, but only after evaluating the environmental, economic and social impact of such transfers.

Water insecurity, further aggravated by global warming, is arguably the most important factor that will determine India’s food security (or insecurity). Recently, the Water Resources Minister has called India a “water stressed” nation which is inching towards water scarcity as its ground water levels are depleting very fast. The water table has been falling by up to 1.5 – 2.0 meters per year in recent years in some areas. During 2007 – 2012, wells in Delhi in north and Andhra Pradesh in the south saw the biggest decline. The situation in parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and northwest India is particularly critical as ground water was dipping at an alarming rate. Clearly, natural replenishment lags behind usage. According to a World Bank study, most major Indian cities will run dry by 2020, unless significant improvement is achieved in country’s water management. Needless to say, water security is the base needed for food and energy securities.

The per capita availability of water in the country has declined to one-third of what it was 65 years ago. The per capita water availability in the country is reducing progressively due to increase in population and of course due to irresponsible use of existing water resources. The average annual per capita availability of water in the country in 2001 was 1816 cubic meters per year; it declined to 1545 cubic meters per year considering the 2011 census. It is expected to go down to 1341 cubic meters in 2025. There are studies that suggest that by around 2030, India’s total water availability per capita is expected to decline to 1,240 cubic meters per person per year and to 1140 cubic meters by 2050, which is not much far from the ‘water scarce’ benchmark of 1,000 cubic meter of the World Bank. [1 cubic meter is the name for 1000 liters. A typical bucket can carry about 20 liters of water. A glass of water can be one-fourth to one-third of a liter. ] The water quantity and quality have been declining due to irresponsible and increasing usage, poor infrastructure, and pollution. The economic liberalization in India is encouraging urbanization with consequent rise in both urban water consumption and pollution. Compare India with other nations in the following chart:

Over 50 percent of agriculture in India depends entirely on groundwater. In the North and Northeast India, there are perennial rivers like Ganga and Brahmaputra fed by the Himalayan glaciers, to sustain the agriculture. On the other hand, the West and South India depend on seasonal rivers and rapidly depleting groundwater resources.

The worst affected and most vulnerable are the small farmers of India. They heavily depend upon the sufficient seasonal monsoon rains just for survival. Slightest adverse changes, which, in recent years, have become more frequent both due to government policies and abrupt climatic conditions, can make their lives unbearably painful. Between 1995 and 2010, over 2,50,000 farmers, mostly from states such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, committed suicide: a stark reminder of how insecure their lives really are.

Why This Situation has Arisen in India

In earlier days, there used to be just one crop (one growing season) during the rainy season every year. But then due to growing need of food for the rising population, the concept of irrigation was evolved and additional crops began to be planned for the non-rainy season also. So, not just the surface water of rivers and lakes but also the ground water came to be exploited for irrigation of crops. Now besides agriculture, the industry as well as the rising population are also consuming water heavily and polluting water bodies as well. Since there is not enough surface water, there is heavy use of groundwater. Thus, we are in the situation of overuse and the water table is falling very fest: more than a meter per year at some places. Being a tropical country, there is rather high evaporation of water. The situation, in comparison, is different in Germany or Netherlands where on an average precipitation is more than evaporation but of course not all European nations are as fortunate as them. However, population pressure is rather small elsewhere. Note that India is home to about 16 per cent of the world’s population but has only 4 per cent water resources.

Groundwater is apparently cleaner because it is stored in the pores and fissures of the geological formations below the earth’s surface. So it is also preferred for drinking, and is less bound to be polluted.

Impact of Global Warming 

Global warming has already begun to manifest in two ways:

First, the rising temperatures have hastened the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, which feed major Indian rivers like the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra. Added to this are the worrying Chinese plans to divert Brahmaputra waters to feed its northern heartland.

Second, the climate change is also disrupting the monsoon’s weather pattern in India, causing it to become more erratic, arrive early or late and lasting for shorter, abrupt changes in rain intensities. Indian agriculture has traditionally depended upon orderly behavior of monsoon rains and its cropping patterns are built around it. The farming communities still overwhelmingly depend on the monsoon.

The net effect of global warming, climate change and over exploitation of water resources is violation of the water cycle, degradation of the aquifers and erosion of the ground water resources.

Why India must Act to Counter Water Scarcity Now?

There are compelling reasons that India must become serious about the issue of water security now. The foremost is the rising population: from today’s 1.23 billion it is expected to reach about 1.65 billion in 2050. Besides, the urban population is expected to grow to 55.2% by then. It is a known fact that urbanites consume far bigger quantity of water. Significant larger amounts of water will also be required to grow more food grains for the bigger population. It will also necessarily entail changing farming practices to reduce water requirement, besides use of high yielding crop varieties. Together rice, wheat and sugarcane together constitute about 90% of India’s crop production and are the most water-consuming crops. Another serious issue is the shrinking land area under agriculture due to pressures of urbanization and expanding cities.

What about the water needs of the growing industrial sector? The industry needs power so the energy sector has to keep pace with the rising demand. Unfortunately, even today about two-third power comes from the thermal power plants which are the most water-intensive industrial units. A typical thermal power plant consumes 3.5 – 4.0 cubic meters of water per MW. What this means is the water required for a 1000MW power plant could irrigate 7,000 hectares of agricultural land annually. A side effect of the growing industrial sector will be rising pollution, that of water resources too. All of this will result in increased consumption of water.

Unless concrete and effective steps are initiated now water might become the source of all social troubles in the coming years and decades.

Remedial Steps towards Water Security

Responding to the water security needs of the country, the National Water Policy 2012 was formally launched in April 2013 by the President. One of the key goals is to increase water use efficiency by 20%. Under the policy, a National Water Mission has been launched under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). Its stated objective is “conservation of water, minimizing wastage and ensuring its more equitable distribution, both across and within States, through integrated water resources development and management.”

Beyond policy initiatives, perhaps the foremost requirement is to remove the mindset that water is an undepleteable resource and all that is needed is a further development of groundwater reservoirs. It must be recognized that the ‘era of further water development is already over’ and we must now urgently move towards better and more efficient water management. In this regard, water management in the agriculture sector is crucial for overall sustainability of nation’s water resources. It implies promotion of water efficient micro-irrigation techniques like drip and sprinkler and adoption of cropping systems such as the system of Rice intensification (SRI) that rely on much lesser water.

President’s suggestion that rainwater harvesting could be popularized by dovetailing the existing MGNREGA and the initiatives at integrated watershed development should be aimed at increasing the soil moisture, reducing the sediment yield and improving land and water productivity.

The urban areas should devise ways to minimize the waste of water. Losses due to transportation and leakages can be minimized by developing sources of water near the points of usages.

In conclusion, India must take effective steps to improve its water management policy under the NWP 2012. A lot of people in the informed circle envision that the next world war would be most likely triggered by water scarcity across the continents. In the Asian context all fingers are pointing towards Himalayan glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau which are melting very fast, putting a question mark on the future of Ganga and particularly the Brahmaputra which is shared by India and China. Will the waters of peaceful Tibet trigger the future Indo-China war, is a serious question that demands some serious long term thinking by Indian water policymakers.

United Nations of thirst

The global population has tripled over the past 50 years, and with an 800% increase in water consumption per person in industrialised nations, the gravest crisis the world faces today is water scarcity. On Earth Day, we take stock of the numbers.

Crisis in Numbers

India has 18% of the world's population and 4%of the globe's water resources

About 80% of the water available is used for farming and less than 10% by factories

Rs 1.1 trillion Budget set aside by the central and state governments for sewage treatment, irrigating and recycling of water for the five-year period ending March 2017

Water availability per person dropped by 15% to 1,545 cubic litres in a decade, according to Census 2011

Industrial water demand may surge 57% by 2025, being the most waterstressed among the Group of 20 nations

Corporate Crunch vs Internal Displacement

PLANS BY Posco, the world's biggest steelmaker by value, to build a $12b mill in Orissa have stalled for 8 years. Farmers in the state have been fighting for their rights to their irrigated land & the South Korean co has failed to persuade them to move

ARCELORMITTAL, the world's largest steelmaker by output, faces delays for a $10 billion plant in Orissa andJharkhand for the same reason

TATA STEEL is setting annual targets to cut water usage

Water scarcity affects business of 60% Indian companies: Survey

An overwhelming majority of Indian companies consider water scarcity an increasing business risk, prompting them to conserve the commodity, a survey has revealed.

As many as 83% respondents identified inadequate availability of water as a major risk to their business, in a survey of 27 major industrial sectors conducted by the US-based Columbia Water Center in association with industry lobby FICCI. While 60% respondents said inadequate availability of water was already impacting their business, 87% said the scarcity would impact their business 10 years down the line.

The respondents - from sectors such as infrastructure, textiles, energy, oil and gas, retail, pharmaceuticals, information technology and health services - also raised issues related to allocation, regulatory framework and pricing.

Thermal power plants, which are among the highest consumers of water, stand at a greater risk with their cost of water transportation rising due to depleting sources. Water needs to be transported through pipelines over distances as much as 100 km in some cases, necessitating additional expenditure.

"Water is scarce and in coming days it shall be more so," said the official spokesperson of power producerNTPC, "Transportation of water does not put stress on revenues but leads to more expenditure on fixed cost amounting to higher tariff."

Business risk is posed by two types of water scarcity being faced by the country, said Manoj KM Chaturvedi, Hindustan Construction Company's deputy general manager-CSR. "Physical scarcity, where there is not enough water to meet demand; and economic scarcity, where communities lack the infrastructure and/or financial capacity to access the water they need," he said.

Most respondents also raised concerns over poor water quality and said the lack of regulatory and policy framework will have a bearing on their functioning in the coming years.

"The root cause is the lack of policies," said a senior official with GAIL. "There is no standardised data for industry consumption patterns. The policies are not so effective, the technology obsolete and sometimes they are not bothered about the implementation of the rules."

Romit Sen, senior assistant director with FICCI's water division, said: "Efforts for water conservation have to be a mix of efforts to improve process efficiency, where water consumption in the industrial process is brought down through a mix of technology and plugging leakages within the system."

The Need for a National Water Policy

An incident that happened in 1995 remains afresh in my mind even after all these years. I and my friend were shopping in a busy area in Coimbatore. We happened to see a posh car stopping nearby and two hands came out of its window, one hand washing the other with a 1 litre can of mineral water freshly purchased by the driver from a shop. Rich can afford for mineral water, to wash their hands and even for taking bath. What if poor were made to pay for the water they use?

The draft National water policy has gone into two revisions in May and then in July, after being tabled for first time in January due to much protest on treating water as an economic good and favoring privatization. Nevertheless the soul of the draft remains intact, except for few accommodations to satisfy those who voiced against favor towards private bodies. There is all likely- hood that water may become a rationed commodity in future. You have to pay for excess water, that you consume after meeting your basic domestic, sanitation and agricultural needs.

A national level legal framework to control water use and prevent interstate, intrastate and regional water conflicts is no doubt imperative.  India with a population of above 1.3 billion (17% of the world population) has only 4% of worlds renewable water resources. The geographical area of India is 329 Mha of which is 180.6 Mha is arable. A total area of 142 Mha is net sown area, of which 57 Mha is irrigated area. India has the largest irrigated area in the world. The total drainage area of India is divided into 24 basins of which 13 major basins have a drainage area more than 20,000 km2. As per present estimate, India receives on average annual precipitation of about 4000 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM), which is its basic water resource. Out of this, after considering the natural evaporation- transpiration, only about 1869 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM) is average annual natural flow through rivers and aquifers. Of this, only about 1123 BCM is utilizable through the present strategies, if large inter-basin transfers are not considered. Thus, the availability of water is limited but the demand of water is increasing rapidly due to growing population, rapid urbanization, rapid industrialization and economic development.

Dry rivers across the country and their pollution by solid waste, pollution by effluents, over exploitation of groundwater resources, inadequate sanitation, growing water conflicts, lack of holistic and inter-disciplinary approach in water management, improper decision making by public agencies, changing characteristics of catchment areas due land use and land cover changes, salinization and changing rainfall pattern due to climate change warrants such a regulation. Making the public aware about the water issues and use it judiciously is the need of the hour.

Table.1 Water Demands for Various sectors in 1998 and 2025 in India( Billion Cubic Meters)

Sector	1988	2025	2050
Irrigation	524	618	807
Domestic use	30	62	111
Industrial use	30	67	81
Inland Navigation	0	10	15
Power	9	33	70
Environment	0	10	20
Evaporation losses	36	50	76
Total	629	850	1,180

Source: Report of the NCIWRDP (1999)

What the National Water Policy draft 2012 says??

Highlights of the draft national water policy is given below

• Planning, development and management of water resources need to be governed by common integrated perspective considering local, regional, State and national context, and keeping in view the human, environmental, social and economic needs.
• Water needs to be managed as a common pool community resource through a National level legal framework, under public trust doctrine to achieve food security, livelihood, and equitable and sustainable development for all. Existing  water Acts  may have to be modified accordingly.
• Water is essential for sustenance of eco-system, and therefore, minimum ecological needs should be given due consideration.
• River basins are to be considered as the basic unit of all hydrological planning. Inter-basin transfers of water to be considered on the basis of merits of each case after evaluating the environmental, economic and social impacts of such transfers.
• Climate change adaptation strategies like increasing the water storage various means, better water use efficiency, proper demand management, incorporate coping strategies for possible climate changes during formulation of mega water projects and enhancing the capabilities of community to adopt climate resilient technological options is advocated.
• Enhancing the water available for use through status assessment of water resources every five years,  direct use of rainfall and avoidance of inadvertent evapo-transpiration , mapping of aquifers to know the quantum and quality of ground water, arresting exploitation of ground water and considering the river basins as basic hydrological units of all planning’s is advocated in the policy.
• Integrated watershed development activities with MGNREGA to extent possible to reduce sedimentation yield and increase water productivity.
• Water footprints, and water auditing should be developed to promote and incentivize efficient use of water.
• Recycle and reuse of water, including return flows, should be the general norm and incentives for the same to encourage practice.
• Water saving in irrigation use is of paramount importance and heavy underpricing of electricity which results in both wastage of water and electricity to be regulated
• The draft also says that “For the pre-emptive and high priority uses of water for sustaining life and ecosystem for ensuring food security and supporting livelihood for the poor, the principle of differential pricing may have to be retained. Over and above these uses, water should increasingly be subjected to allocation and pricing on economic principles”
• A Water Regulatory Authority (WRA) should be established in each State to  fix and regulate the water tariff system and charges( on volumetric basis). Water Users Associations (WUAs) should be given statutory powers to collect and retain a portion of water charges, manage the volumetric quantum of water allotted to them and maintain the distribution system in their jurisdiction.
• Conservation of river corridors, water bodies and infrastructure by preventing encroachment and diversification of water bodies and restoring them to the extent feasible avoiding urban settlements in upstreams and controlling pollution of water bodies through stringent punitive actions.
• In planning and implementation efficiency benchmarks to be prescribed, done in ecological, social and climate change perspective and they should be time bound to avoid economic losses. Local governing bodies like Panchayats, Municipalities, Corporations, etc., and Water Users Associations, wherever applicable, should be involved in planning of the projects.
• Proactive measure  like flood forecasting, coping mechanisms in place and relevant control measures to prevent flood and drought are to be planned
• Removal of disparity in water supply urban and rural areas, tapping surface water for urban domestic water supply and integrating water supply and sewage treatment schemes will be given priority.
• A permanent Water Disputes Tribunal at the Centre should be established to resolve the disputes expeditiously in an equitable manner. Apart from using the “good offices? of the Union or the State Governments, as the case may be, the paths of Arbitration and Mediation may also to be tried in dispute resolution.
• Water resources projects and services should be managed with community participation. Wherever the State Governments or local governing bodies so decide, the private sector can be encouraged to become a service provider in public private partnershipmodel to meet agreed terms of service delivery, including penalties for failure.
• The draft facilitates international agreements with neighboring countries on  bilateral basis for  exchange of hydrological data of international rivers on near real time basis.
• All hydrological data, other than those classified on national security consideration, should be in public domain. A National Water Informatics Center should be established to collect, collate and process hydrologic data regularly from all over the country, conduct the preliminary processing, and maintain in open and transparent manner on a GIS platform.

Merits and demerits of the policy

Merits

• The policy deserves accolade for its ecological, climate change and conservational perspective.
• Adaptation to climate change and the statement that special attention will be given towards mitigation at micro-level by enhancing the capabilities of community to adopt climate resilient technological options is welcome.
• The revision of the statement “water, over and above the preemptive need for safe drinking water and sanitation, should be treated as an economic good so as to promote its conservation and efficient use” in the initial draft to “Water, after meeting the preemptive needs for safe drinking water, sanitation and high priority allocation for other domestic needs (including needs of animals), achieving food security, supporting sustenance agriculture and minimum ecosystem needs, may be treated as economic good so as to promote its conservation and efficient use” can be welcomed in the perspective that agriculture was given importance.
• The statement that “inter-basin transfers of water should be considered on the basis of merits of each case after evaluating the environmental, economic and social impacts of such transfers” seems to understand the difficulty in interlinking rivers and its possible negative impacts.
• Growing water conflicts warrant a permanent ” Water dispute tribunal”, which is taken care off in the draft.
• Underpricing of electricity is no doubt a reason for wastage of both water and electricity. Importance to regulate this is given in the draft which can be appreciated.

Demerits

• The policy sees water as a community resource, but also treats water as an economic good which is contradictory. Approaching water as an income generating resource by the government, must be executed very carefully. The policy allows for public private partnership model and also asks the states to exit the “service provider role” and play as a regulator, which will lead to distortion of access to water and the prices in long run. As usual with the other policies, the poor will be at the receiving end.
• Doing away with priorities mentioned in the earlier drafts  (1987 and 1992  drafts lists the priorities as drinking water, irrigation, hydropower etc) will cause confusion in decision making process and facilitate the role of parties with vested interest (e.g.,providing flexibility for allocating water for industrial use even at the cost of agriculture).
• The water policies were there in paper since 1987, but nothing much has been done practically to ensure judicial use of water, to prevent encroachment of water bodies or growing exploitation of ground water resources. For e.g., As per clause 3.3 of the 2002 policy, water resources development and management will have to be planned for a hydrological unit such as drainage basin as a whole or for a sub-basin, multi-sectorally, taking into account surface and ground water. “This has not translated into even one example of planning for a basin or even one instance of planning for surface and groundwater together,” says Chetan Pandit, former member (Policy and Planning) of Center water Commission.
• Giving incentives for recycle and reuse of water is in the favor of industries. Instead of incentives, strict enforcement of punitive laws to punish those industries that neglect water and pollute it should be the ideal option
• The draft policy, also wants to take away proprietary rights on water, which means no one can take ownership of ground water in a private land. Though it seems a good move, practically it may affect use of water for agriculture also unless it is further clarified.
• Intra-state and inter-state water conflicts exist and the already constituted tribunals could not find a solution to this (Cauvery water tribunal for example). Water issues are very sensitive and unless proper understanding among people within states and inter states is created, conflicts will continue to occur.

To Conclude

Water, food and shelter are the basic amenities for every human being. Hence, drinking water and water for agriculture should be ensured as a right of every Indian. Though population growth is stated as the general reason for increased demand for water, there are many other basic reasons underneath like wastage of water, less importance to recycling, exploiting the natural resources and lack of attention to maintain water storage structures and other water harvesting technologies. Above all, the corruption that has rooted in the water management practices like in other departments remains as a potential threat to the water security of the country. All living beings on the earth, live by using the existing resources. Man is the only animal, who lives by exploiting those resources. The result of continuous exploitation of these resources will result in a large social unrest in long run, leading to further conflicts, barbaric acts, growth in terrorism and large scale wars. The growth of conflicts over water in the recent years across states and terrorism in north eastern states were just examples. National Water Policy, will just remain as a resolution in paper, like the earlier ones if the government is not very serious about the issue. At the same time protecting the basic rights of the people is equally important.

Will Waters of Peaceful Tibet become cause for Future Conflicts in Asia?

Increasing Water Demand, Decreasing Supply

A Polluted River in China

Tibet’s vast glaciers and high altitude make it the biggest source of water in the world. With control of Tibetan plateau, China is in the ideal position to influence the water supply to a number of countries downstream – India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Cambodia, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. These countries form almost half the world population. No wonder any Chinese activity on Tibetan rivers makes its neighbors restless. With rapid industrialization of China, water is fast becoming a scars commodity not only due to increasing consumption but also because of pollution of water bodies. Another irony is that Asia is rather water deficit continent despite being home for over half of humanity. Asia has only about 3920 cubic meter of water per capita, only better than Antarctica.

Pressure on water resources also come from the spread of irrigated farming, water guzzling industries like steel and paper and a growing middle class which is increasingly adopting comforting lifestyle based on washing machines and dishwashers. The fast growing middle class population in Asia (more importantly in India and China) aspires to live like Americans, whose daily consumption is of the order of 400 liters – about 2.5 times the Asia average.

Added to growing water consumption is the adverse effect coming from global warming, climate change and environmental degradation in the form of shrinking forest and swamp covers. They foster cycles of abrupt flooding and droughts which are increasingly putting pressure on people’s well being. The shrinking Himalayan glaciers do not portray a good picture for the future of most Asian rivers.

In this backdrop, Chinese efforts to dam rivers on the Tibetan plateau or talk of redirecting their water towards its northern cities provoke anxiety among its downstream neighbors. Among Asian mighty rivers, only the Ganga originates from the Indian side of the Himalayas. Major rivers originating from the Tibetan plateau include Mekong, Yangtze, Yellow, Salween, Kamali, Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo) and Sutlej.

Industrial Pollution

As the water is becoming scars in the northern mainland due to ever increasing consumption and river pollutions, China increasingly looks towards the bounteous water reserves of the Tibetan plateau. It has dammed rivers not only for hydropower but also channels water for irrigation and other purposes. Its five dams on Mekong has inflamed Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. It is currently toying with the idea of massive inter basin and inter river water transfer proposals.

China Taking Control of Water Resources

The control over 2.5 million sq km Tibetan plateau gives tremendous strategic leverage to China, besides access to vast natural resources. Its efforts to harness rivers of the Tibetan plateau for water and energy are endangering the water ecosystems of its neighbors in the south and Southeast Asia.

It is not difficult to foresee that if China enters a conflict with any of its neighbors in the future, the reason would be water. Rivers from the Tibetan plateau flow down to eleven countries and supply fresh water to over 85% of Asia’s population, approximately 50% of the world’s population. Four of the world’s ten major rivers, the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra in India), the Yangtze, the Mekong and the Huang Ho (Yellow River) originate from Tibetan Plateau. In addition there are other important rivers such as the Salween, the Irrawaddi, the Arun, the Karnali, the Sutlej and the Indus that owe their birth in Tibet.

China’s economic growth of the past decade has been remarkable and in order to maintain the growth rate it has turned itself into an ogre devouring raw materials, energy and natural resources. Along the way it has ended up polluting most of its major rivers meandering the mainland region. It only means increasing demand for water and threat of water diversion from Tibet to north China.

All it means is that China’s downstream neighbors can no longer take their river water supply for granted in the future. With China in the driving seat on the Tibetan plateau and its awe inspiring military might, they can only watch the Chinese activities and diplomatic posturing with sense of dismay and resignation. Naturally, every report of damming of rivers in Tibet or news of Chinese plans to divert waters towards arid north, causes alarm in its downstream neighbors.

When it comes to hydro projects on the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo), both India (for its northeast states) and Bangladesh (because it receives over half of its water from Brahmaputra) have to take it seriously.

The Brahmaputra River

Mighty Brahmaputra

About 2900 km long Brahmaputra River or Yarlung Tsangpo, as it is known in Tibet, has an immense bearing on the lives of millions of people in the sub-continent. It originates from the Angsi Glacier near Mt Kailash and runs eastward along southern Tibet for about 2057 km before flowing into India to become the Brahmaputra. It is considered to be the highest river on earth with an average altitude of 4,000 meters. An interesting feature of the river is the sharp U turn (known as the Great Bend) at its east-most point near Mt. Namcha Barwa close to the Indian border. Just like the Nile in Egypt, the Yarlung Tsangpo has fed and nourished the Tibetan civilization along its valley, especially in the Central Tibet.

After entering India in Arunachal Pradesh it penetrates Assam, where it is joined by two other rivers (the Dihang and Lohit). It has been considered as the soul of Assam by poets and ordinary folk alike due to its fertile valley. In Bangladesh, it takes the name Jamuna and unites with the Ganga and then ultimately divides into hundreds of channels to form a vast delta before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

Fresh Chinese Hydro Projects

Recently China approved proposals to set up 3 new dams in the middle reaches of Yarlung Tsangpo at Dagu, Jiacha and Jiexu, under a new energy development plan for the twelfth Five Year Plan (2011 – 2015). The Chinese government announced that “it will push forward vigorously the hydropower base construction” on the middle reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo. It is already constructing a major hydropower dam for a 510 MW project in Zangmu in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). When its construction started in 2010 it triggered concern in India. But the Chinese assured that the project was only a run-of-the-river type hydropower project and not storage or diversion of Brahmaputra’s waters. The four projects are within few dozen km from each other. The current proposed construction of the 124 meters Dagu dam (with a 640 MW capacity) along with two others only adds more apprehensions.

There are 12 small dams on the Brahmaputra’s upper reaches and tributaries which prepared the ground for bigger projects as being revealed now. It is easy to see that the minor projects are always innocuous but the situation changes as progressively larger projects come up. They could not only affect water flows but also remove nutrient-rich silt that helps nourish agriculture downstream.

From the Yangtze to the Mekong and now the Brahmaputra, Chinese dam-building follows a well-established pattern. It starts with small dams on the river’s upper reaches and eventually moves to large size dams downstream.

Fear of Future Mega Hydro Projects

The next logical step on the Brahmaputra is to prepare for a gigantic hydropower project near the Great Bend area where the fall is steepest. For now it can easily be dismissed as too fanciful and technically challenging. But looking at Chinese technical capability after building world’s largest hydropower project at Three Gorges Dam and their penchant for mega projects, it is very much possible that at some time in the future they decide to go for it. Such gigantic technological adventure is fraught with risks for the downstream neighbors not only in terms of reduced water flow and loss of soil fertility but also probable catastrophic seismic disasters. A dam in the Great Bend area would also allow implementation of water diversion projects to transport water to the northern region. Such a scenario would be no less than a silent declaration of water wars on India and Bangladesh. This is what worries them the most.

The dangers of earthquake and dam collapse are other serious concerns for India. A recent study of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore revealed for the first time that in 1255 and 1934, two great earthquakes ruptured the surface of the earth in the Himalayas. Professor Paul Tapponnier of the French Academy of Sciences, using new high-resolution imagery and latest dating techniques, confirmed that the 1934 earthquake did rupture the surface of the earth and damaged the ground across an area over 150 km, in the Himalayas. Quakes of magnitude between 7.8 and 8.9 on the Richter Scale also occurred in 1897, 1905, 1934 and 1950 and caused tremendous damage.

Hydro Projects in Tibet: Thirsty Dragon, Restless Neighbors

Any Solution?

The ideal solution is to set up an International Brahmaputra River Water Tribunal or a tripartite agreement between India, China, and Bangladesh for cooperative water management in the region. But the opaque style of functioning in communist China makes such peace inducing initiatives unfeasible.

Incidentally, in May 1997, when the UN General Assembly adopted a Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, China along with Turkey and Burundi voted against it and India abstained from the vote. The rather mild Convention “aimed at guiding States in negotiating agreements on specific watercourses.”

Maharashtra staring at water crisis

Owing to delayed monsoon, the storage level across all dams in Maharashtra has gone down to 19 per cent compared with 22 per cent last year.

According to officials, this could lead to water shortage in cities like Mumbai. The Mumbai municipality is mulling over the option of reducing supply by around 15 to 20 per cent from next week.

“It hasn’t rained as expected in June. While we have enough water in our dams, we need to be ready for the worst of the situations. A decision on reducing water supply will be taken soon,” a senior official from the municipality told The Hindu .

The State government has asked the district administrations to tackle the issue on priority.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday held a video conference with the Collectors of 20 districts to take stock of the situation. “Providing drinking water will be the priority. Each district will be provided with funds for water-related schemes, according to their needs,” Mr. Chavan told the Collectors.

Mr. Chavan asked the district administrations to submit the contingency plan to tackle the situation. He said that this was the third consecutive drought-like year in the State. “According to the meteorological department, the monsoon is likely to be delayed till the first week of July. If need be, more water tankers will be required in near future. The officials should be ready for it,” he said.

As per the government data, 4,117 tankers had already been provided to tackle the water scarcity in 18 cities in the Marathwada region, North and Western Maharashtra.

Troubled Waters

G Seetharaman





From water-sharing conflicts to failed clean-up attempts, from interlinking to contentious dams, India's rivers could do with some farsighted management

You know how bitter the longstanding dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the sharing of the Cauvery waters has become when movie stars of the two states wade into it. For instance, when Karnataka objected in 2008 to a drinking water project Tamil Nadu was planning in a town close to the border the states share, Tamil actors went on a protest and Rajinikanth, a Maharashtrian who grew up in Bangalore, wondered aloud: “If Karnataka objects to us taking the water that is rightfully ours, should we not teach them a lesson?” The poser invited threats from Karnataka that his films would be banned there.Whenever there is a legal decision in the matter that is adverse to Karnataka, it is inevitable that cinema owners in Karnataka will stop screening Tamil movies and cable operators will pull Tamil television channels out of
their offerings, which last happened in late 2012.The latest in the conflict is Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa demanding that the Centre set up the Cauvery Management Board as part of the 2007 order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT). However, her Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah said it cannot be done till the Supreme Court decides on the states' petitions on the tribunal's verdict, which asked Karnataka to release 192 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) to Tamil Nadu in a regular monsoon year. Both the states challenged the order in the apex court, with Tamil Nadu saying it was lower than the 205 tmcft awarded in an interim order. Even Kerala and Puducherry are party to the dispute, though their share is much lower. Dispute Across Decades The Cauvery originates in the Brahmagiri hills of Coorg, Karnataka, and the dispute dates back to two agreements signed between the erstwhile Mysore state and the Madras Presidency in 1892 and 1924. After the second agreement expired in 1974, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu started sparring on how to share the water and Tamil Nadu demanded the setting up of the CWDT which materialized in 1990, thanks to the apex court's directive. It took the tribunal 17 years to reach its final verdict, but the conflict is unlikely to be resolved soon, given its political implications.
S Janakarajan, professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, calls the tribunal's decision “excellent given the circumstances“.
MB Patil, minister of water resources in Karnataka, denies that the state's stance is determined by political parties' vote banks. “Every state will have its own interests and we have to protect our farmers. We are willing to hold talks and settle it out of court. Our position has always been that whenever there is water we will release it to Tamil Nadu. Though we are supposed to release only 192 tmcft to Tamil Nadu, last year we released 260 tmcft,“ says Patil. The Tamil Nadu government could not be reached for comment.
This is hardly the only river that has been in the crosshairs of two or more states. Karnataka is battling Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra over Krishna, and Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are locked in a dispute over Ravi and Beas. Though water is a state subject, the Centre steps in when there is an inter-state dispute, which is gov erned by the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
Bharat Sharma, coordinator of the International Water Management Institute's (IWMI's) India program, says India can learn lessons from the management of the Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia. “It's a great example of river sharing and management,“ adds Sharma. The basin contains the country's three longest rivers, covers 14% of its land area and runs through four of its six states and one of its two territories.
“Damn the Dams“ No Indian river has been as much in the news in the last three decades as the Narmada, which runs through Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The opposition to the proposal to build 30 large dams on it, particularly the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat, has been instrumental in the rise of environmental activism and people's movements in India. With thousands displaced by the dams, which activists claim have also caused serious environmental damage, the river will continue to be the country's most contentious.
The Centre recently okayed raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam by seven metres to its final height of 138.72 metres. Activist Medha Patkar says the government has not yet rehabilitated those displaced by the dam in the past and that the water meant for irrigation in the Kutch and Saurashtra region has been directed to industries. “The government does a cost-benefit analysis of dams by understating the costs and overstating the benefits. Not all costs are quantifiable,“ says Patkar.
Drier Future Sharma says that as civil society renews its efforts and water scarcity intensifies, more and more states will want to hold on to their rivers. India's water scenario is looking bleak at best.
For instance, with the increase in India's population from about 1.03 billion in 2001 to 1.21 billion in 2011, the annual average per capita availability of water has gone down from 1,816 cubic metres to 1,545 cubic metres in the same period. This means India is `water-stressed', which is a tag attached to a per capita availability of less than 1,700 cubic metres. The situation is expected to worsen by 2025 when India's per capita availability is projected to be 1,340 cubic metres.
According to a Unicef report on India's water scenario, more than four fifths of the annual run-off of the rivers occurs in the mon soon months of June to Sep tember, often causing floods.
“However, acute water shortage is faced in many parts of In dia during the rest of the year.“
Even in places receiving more than adequate rainfall like Cherrapunji, among the wettest places on earth, in Meghalaya, the soil may not retain the wa ter long enough to avoid a shortage.
Floods are common in northern and eastern India, as are droughts and water shortages in the west and south. It is to overcome this problem that India is planning to link watersurplus rivers in the north and east to waterscarce rivers in the south and west. The project has its origins in a proposal in the 1960s by technocrat KL Rao to link the Ganga and Cauvery from below Patna. In 1982, prime minister Indira Gandhi set up an agency to explore the linking of rivers.
Unwieldy Link of Rivers While the interlinking of rivers (ILR) project had languished in cold storage for two decades, the Supreme Court in 2003, following a public inter
est litigation, asked for the project to be completed by 2016. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was gungho on the project but when it lost power in 2004, its successor the United Progressive Alliance, was not too keen, despite the apex court asking it to expedite the project in 2012. Now, the Narendra Modi-led government seems to want to revive the project. “We will do the interlinking of rivers in a manner that it simultaneously takes care of drinking-water/irrigation needs of people and ecological concerns,“ minister of state for environment Prakash Javadekar told The Times of India earlier this month.
The ILR plans to connect 37 rivers by creating 30 river links and 3,000 storages at a staggering cost of `5.6 lakh crore (as of 2002). Its benefits include irrigating an additional 51.5 million hectares of land, creating 35,000 mw of hydel power potential and increasing the country's utilizable water resources by a fourth.
All the same, it has elicited several questions from its critics. “How does one compensate millions of acres that is going to be deforested? Do states really have surplus waters? Are surplus or donor states really going to be saved from floods?“ asks Janakarajan. Ramaswamy R Iyer, former secretary of water resources, has been harsher. In a paper on the ILR, he wrote: “Rivers are not human artefacts; they are natural phenomena...They are not pipelines to be cut, turned around, welded and rejoined.“
Beyond Borders IWMI's Sharma believes the project has to first focus on linking intra-state rivers as there will be no inter-state dispute on this. “We have to get our act together on hydro diplomacy before we go ahead with the project. For instance, we need to reach an agreement with China on the Brahmaputra before we link it with other rivers,“ he adds. The Brahmaputra originates in Tibet and flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam into Bangladesh.
India has criticized China's approval in 2013 to three new hydropower dams in the middle reaches of the river, known as Yarlung Zangbo there. China has reacted by saying its plans are no different from India's. However, construction has reportedly not begun on even one of the 25 hydel projects India has awarded to developers in Arunachal Pradesh in the last decade. India and China do not have a water-sharing agreement.
While an ad hoc agreement between India and Bangladesh was put together in the 1980s to share the Teesta waters, former PM Manmohan Singh's efforts to forge a new one were stalled thanks to protests from West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who feared that allowing more water to flow into Bangladesh would lead to a water shortage in her state. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj discussed the issue on June 26 on her visit to Bangladesh, but nothing concrete emerged.
“We should find smarter solutions to bilateral water disputes than just simply agreeing to a number on how much water each country is going to get,“ says Sharma. Trans-boundary water disputes are common across the world, since more than 260 river basins covering half the earth's land area are shared by at least two countries. Former water resources minister Suresh Prabhu says India should work with all its neighbours as partners to develop water resources “for mutual benefit and to avoid ravaging losses.“ He adds: “Benefit sharing could bring in huge upsides for all as Bhutan now enjoys, getting almost 70% of its total revenues from royalties paid by India (for hydel power).“ Benefit sharing, as opposed to sharing the water itself, denotes sharing `benefits' such as hydroelectric power, derived from the use of the river, by two or more countries. While Bhutan already supplies power from three hydroelectric projects totalling over 1,400 MW, both countries in April inked a deal to implement four more projects of 2,120 MW.
Unholy Treatment As worrying an issue for India as the sharing of rivers with neighbours and by states within is the pollution of rivers, particularly its holiest, the Ganges. Modi referred to it as `Maa Ganga' during his election campaign in Varanasi and vowed to clean it up once he came to power. Not surprisingly, that is the first issue minister of water resources Uma Bharti has taken up since assuming charge.
She has said the government is putting together a cleanup plan and that the private sector is also keen on contributing funds for it.
To say the Ganga is severely polluted is an understatement. Given its religious significance, people throw flowers into it and float flames on it. However, the practice of dumping corpses in the river has been on the wane, thanks to a crackdown by the government. “The religious angle of the Ganga does make clean-up efforts more thorny. I don't know how the PM will handle it,“ says Janakarajan. But Kanpur-based environmental activist Rakesh Jaiswal says these are minor sources of pollution compared to the sewage discharged into the river. More than two billion litres of domestic and industrial wastewater are discharged into the river every day.
The Ganga Action Plan was formulated in 1986 and, according to one estimate, over `20,000 crore has been spent to sanitize the river since 1984, but there's not much to show for it. “Nobody denies that the river should be cleaned up, but it becomes political when you take up the issue of, say, tanneries in and around Kanpur. Since they are high forex earners and are owned by Muslims, the issue is politicized,“ says Jaiswal. Yamuna, the largest tributary of the Ganga, is in no better shape, with Delhi said to dump more than half its waste in the river.
The government cannot afford to waste any more time in cleansing its rivers, which are already way past the stage where their original pristine nature can be restored.
At the same time, it has to make way for a speedier resolution of inter-state disputes, and beef up its hydro diplomacy at a time when access to water can put you on a geopolitical pedestal with your neighbours.