Amitabha Sadangi, a post-graduate in labour and social welfare, comes from a farming family in Orissa. They have seen what water paucity means and how it affects the life of people. Because of scarcity of water they were able to sow only one crop a year and as a result could never meet their basic needs of life.
Amitabha sold news papers to fund his education. Once he was done with his post-graduation, he knew what he wanted to do. He started Internation Development Enterprise (IDE) in 1984 to provide affordable products to rural families to tackle water scarcity problems.
IDE developed Treadle pumps and drip irrigation kits, suitable for rural areas. Treadle pump costs only Rs 500 and can draw water from 25 feet. Treadle pumps are very cheap when compared with diesel pumps. IDE has sold over 750K treadle pumps and helped many families meet the basic needs of their lives.
Drip irrigation kits developed by IDE are also very cheap compared to other commercial products. IDE kits are available for 5-7K per acre as compared with 50K per acre for other kits. In many cases the return on investment for rural families are as good as three times. Drip irrigation also reduces the water requirement for irrigation be less than half.
Amitabha, early in life, understood the value water can create for the society and he is working hard to create that value.
What we need to ask ourselves is when there are many who need water and are dying because non-availability of water, can we be careless in our usage?
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Water Scarcity -- A Serious Problem
Water scarcity in India is a very serious problem. The more I read about it, more serious it looks to me. What surprises me is the fact that not enough public awareness is being created. Attitude towards conserving water in the urban society looks disturbing. And probably it will continue to happen the same way till the problem knocks at their door. Even then, what we will do is not take steps but blame government and bureaucrats for mishandling the issue.
There is direct water supply to most of the homes in well developed urban areas. Rich get water for free and poor have to shell out money for a few precious drops. People in rural areas or slums need to travel for many KMs and stand in the queue to get their limited quota of water.
Various studies have analyzed the water situation in India and concluded that we are heading for a bleak future. I am sure we don't need any study to tell us that the problem exists; but studies do help us understand the situation better and take appropriate actions. One of the studies by N.K Garg and Q. Hassan stated that water scarcity will be alarming as the projected demand of even 897 billion cubic metre (BCM), corresponding to low demand scenario, cannot be met even after full development of the water resources. They also said that underground water resources are already being over-exploited since 1997-98.
Our near complete reliance on monsoon means that unless we learn to conserve the rain water, problem is not going to disappear. Nearly 80-90% of water through river flows during the four months of monsoon. During non-monsoon months, we use what is stored.
For all practical purposes this year is a drought year; Government may take its own time to declare drought. A drought is declared when 20-40% of country's total area is rainfall deficient. Moderate drought is declared when rainfall is deficient by 26-50% and severe if it is more than 50%. So far we are 29% short of normal rainfall. But technically Government declares drought only after the monsoon period is over. Which means government will not do anything and a lot of damage will already be done.
There is direct water supply to most of the homes in well developed urban areas. Rich get water for free and poor have to shell out money for a few precious drops. People in rural areas or slums need to travel for many KMs and stand in the queue to get their limited quota of water.
Various studies have analyzed the water situation in India and concluded that we are heading for a bleak future. I am sure we don't need any study to tell us that the problem exists; but studies do help us understand the situation better and take appropriate actions. One of the studies by N.K Garg and Q. Hassan stated that water scarcity will be alarming as the projected demand of even 897 billion cubic metre (BCM), corresponding to low demand scenario, cannot be met even after full development of the water resources. They also said that underground water resources are already being over-exploited since 1997-98.
Our near complete reliance on monsoon means that unless we learn to conserve the rain water, problem is not going to disappear. Nearly 80-90% of water through river flows during the four months of monsoon. During non-monsoon months, we use what is stored.
For all practical purposes this year is a drought year; Government may take its own time to declare drought. A drought is declared when 20-40% of country's total area is rainfall deficient. Moderate drought is declared when rainfall is deficient by 26-50% and severe if it is more than 50%. So far we are 29% short of normal rainfall. But technically Government declares drought only after the monsoon period is over. Which means government will not do anything and a lot of damage will already be done.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Various water related issues in India
Water may become a very big source of deaths in India i.e. lack of water, polluted water and the fights/riots over water. Time is running out and there is really not much action on the ground. There are various organizations and activists working for it but what they need is support from you and me. Let us understand the various issues that we are facing right now.
1. Water scarcity - Increasing gap between demand and supply
Water demand in India is roughly distributed as follows: 90% agriculture, 5-6% industry and rest for domestics and other uses. Demand from domestic and industry sources is expected to increase with the growth in economy and population. It's not just the lack of water that is the problem but also the efficient usage of available water. For example, in irrigation 40-50% water is wasted because of inefficient management of water resources. Then government policies like provision of free electricity to farmers results in laxity on the part of farmers.
2. Depletion of groundwater
Underground water accounts for close to 50% of irrigation needs and most of the rural domestic needs. Whenever the the rate of extraction is more than the rate of replenishment, depletion of aquifers take place. And this is happening at a rapid pace in India.
3. Worsening quality of water
Water pollution is a very serious problem in India with over 70% of surface water and a lot of groundwater sources are already polluted with biological, toxic organic and inorganic wastes.
There are two broad categories of water pollution i.e. Point Source (direct emission into the rivers or other water bodies) and Non-Point Source(delivers pollutants indirectlyy through environmental change or transport). Another way to classify is agriculture, industry and domestic sources of pollution.
4. Disputes and fights over water
1) The Krishna-Godavari water dispute - Maharashtra, Karnatak, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa
2) The Cauvery water dispute - Tamil Nadu, Karnatak
3) The Ravi-Beas water dispute - Haryana, Jammu Kashmir, Rajsthan, Punjab
4) The Yamuna Dispute - Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh
5. Inaction on the part of the government
Inability of government to take serious steps is letting the situation go out of hand. 2500 crores have already been spent on cleaning of Ganga and Yamuna but no results have come out. Also, no one ministry is responsible for different water sources and causes of pollutions; lack of coordination among these ministries further makes the implementation difficult.
I will cover these issues in more details in coming blogs.
1. Water scarcity - Increasing gap between demand and supply
Water demand in India is roughly distributed as follows: 90% agriculture, 5-6% industry and rest for domestics and other uses. Demand from domestic and industry sources is expected to increase with the growth in economy and population. It's not just the lack of water that is the problem but also the efficient usage of available water. For example, in irrigation 40-50% water is wasted because of inefficient management of water resources. Then government policies like provision of free electricity to farmers results in laxity on the part of farmers.
2. Depletion of groundwater
Underground water accounts for close to 50% of irrigation needs and most of the rural domestic needs. Whenever the the rate of extraction is more than the rate of replenishment, depletion of aquifers take place. And this is happening at a rapid pace in India.
3. Worsening quality of water
Water pollution is a very serious problem in India with over 70% of surface water and a lot of groundwater sources are already polluted with biological, toxic organic and inorganic wastes.
There are two broad categories of water pollution i.e. Point Source (direct emission into the rivers or other water bodies) and Non-Point Source(delivers pollutants indirectlyy through environmental change or transport). Another way to classify is agriculture, industry and domestic sources of pollution.
4. Disputes and fights over water
1) The Krishna-Godavari water dispute - Maharashtra, Karnatak, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa
2) The Cauvery water dispute - Tamil Nadu, Karnatak
3) The Ravi-Beas water dispute - Haryana, Jammu Kashmir, Rajsthan, Punjab
4) The Yamuna Dispute - Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh
5. Inaction on the part of the government
Inability of government to take serious steps is letting the situation go out of hand. 2500 crores have already been spent on cleaning of Ganga and Yamuna but no results have come out. Also, no one ministry is responsible for different water sources and causes of pollutions; lack of coordination among these ministries further makes the implementation difficult.
I will cover these issues in more details in coming blogs.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Water Problem And The Next Generation
Whenever my wife and me talk about our second kid, I really get worried. Not that I am not comfortable with the idea of two kids; but what worries me is the kind of world they are going to live in. Of course they will live in the kind of world we leave for them but are we really worried? There are plenty for issues and water scarcity is probably one of the severest problems we are going to face, especially in India.
Situation in India is really bad. And the way we are going, its only going to get worse. We already have instances of riots over water; many people have already died. States are also fighting for water and often results in loss of property worth crores when people clash. What we are fighting for is the whatever little water we have and not doing anything to improve the situation. It's not just availability of water that is the issue, it is also the quality of water that have.
Chasing all the growth and prosperity will have no meaning if we are left fighting for basic amenities. Do we want to create luxuries at the cost of basic necessities of life?
Question we need to ask ourselves is, what we want our next generation to live for? The day is not far when the diamond-water paradox will reverse and become a everyday reality. We will shedding out our luxurious possessions for that little water.
Situation in India is really bad. And the way we are going, its only going to get worse. We already have instances of riots over water; many people have already died. States are also fighting for water and often results in loss of property worth crores when people clash. What we are fighting for is the whatever little water we have and not doing anything to improve the situation. It's not just availability of water that is the issue, it is also the quality of water that have.
Chasing all the growth and prosperity will have no meaning if we are left fighting for basic amenities. Do we want to create luxuries at the cost of basic necessities of life?
Question we need to ask ourselves is, what we want our next generation to live for? The day is not far when the diamond-water paradox will reverse and become a everyday reality. We will shedding out our luxurious possessions for that little water.
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