INDIA WATER WEEK: 4-8th April, 2016
SESSION: SEMINAR ON “WATER LITERACY FOR ALL
TAKING STOCK OF WATER LITERACY IN INDIA
ANITA GUPTA & ARUNANGSHU MUKHERJEE
Central Ground Water Board Ministry of Water Resources, RD&GR
• Everyone understands that water is essential to life. But not many are aware how essential it is to everything in life – – Food – Energy – Transportation – Nature – Identity Culture, Social norms – virtually all the products used on a daily basis.”
• A cultural shift is required to make knowledge about water supplies become part of our national dialogue.
WATER LITERACY
• To take control of our future we must learn about water, that is Water Literacy. Education is power. When it comes to understanding, managing and using our water resources, education becomes even more powerful. • Humans and nature are intertwined. Since we rely on water resources for our very survival, grasping their value as well as the importance of responsible use is critical.
• Water Literacy is water information that everyone should know as basic knowledge for a healthy and sustainable life. • Water Literacy means knowing where your water comes from and how you use it. • Water literacy is not only about water conservation and rejuvenation which is the only concept taking rounds in India. • People must be educated about its source, occurrence, supply & demand and economy involved. • For spreading Water Literacy we must start with facts about our water.
ISSUES • Issues are Availability & Quality –Value of fresh water - shrinking resource, all rivers are polluted –Polluting fresh water- required investment for cleaning / ireversability of pollution
Distribution of Water on Earth 1%
11%
11%
77%
Glaciers GW below 800m GW upto 800m Lakes rivers etc
3% Fresh Water Saline/ Brackish Water 97%
Distribution of Earths Water Other (0.9%) Fresh (3%)
Surface water (0.3%)
Rivers (2%)
•Indian subcontinent has become a water-stressed region with a sharp drop in per capita water availability, from a surplus level of 5410 m3 in 1951 to 1614 m3 in 2011 for its population of 1.2 billion [UNICEF et al., 2013]. •India has the highest Ground Water extraction in the world
Un Sustainable water withdrawal for Irrigation
Being Water Literate means having a basic understanding of: • Water scarcity • Competing demands • Pollution • Water conservation choices. • Climate Change • Water, health and sanitation. • Water footprints and how to calculate them. • Virtual water • Groundwater and watersheds. • Water Infrastructure • The energy-water connection. • Ownership of water • Emerging practices and technology.
INDIA’S WATER RESOURCES & USE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Annual Precipitation 4000km3 Immediate loss 700km3 Total (2150 soaks to ground+1150 surface runoff) 3300km3 Total annual water resources potential 1869km3 Utilizable annual water resources 1121km3 (690surface flow+431ground water)
11.Present use (467SW+243GW)
710km3
COMPETING DEMANDS Present Water Use in India Use in BCM % use
5%
3%
8%
6%
78%
QUALITY Water as a medium for waste disposal
• Industrial Waste • Sewage and Domestic Waste • Religious Immersions • Pollution from last rites • Etc.
Water Conservation Three R theory
Three R theory Paradigm Water use efficiency- Improvement strategy • Canal Irrigation efficiency - 40% • GW Irrigation efficiency -
70%
IWRM theory
CLIMATE CHANGE
Rain T째C CO2
HEALTH & SANITATION
WATER FOOTPRINT Is the amount of fresh water utilized in the production or supply of the goods and services used by an individual person, a process, a product’s entire value chain or for a business, a river basin or a nation. Arjen Y. Hoekstra, at the time working for UNESCO-IHE, the Netherlands, introduced the concept of water footprint. Knowing the water footprints of all things we use should become as common as knowing the calories and fat grams in the foods we eat.
The water footprint of Indian consumption was 987 billion m3/yr in the period 1997-2001, which means 980 m3/yr per capita or 2685 lpcd. (Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2008). Nearly this entire footprint was within the country. Only 2% of the water footprint of Indian consumers lies outside the country.
VIRTUAL WATER TRADE • Hidden flow of water if food or other commodities are traded from one place to other. – 1600m3 water /metric ton wheat – 380 litre water/pound cotton / – 6810 litre water/0.5 kg beef
THE INDIAN SCENARIO • Water Literacy is a far fetched thought. But for sustainable development of the country management of water resources is essential. Management requires knowledge – literacy. • In India we need to teach the people about the water cycle in simple terms, about how their water occurs in nature (aquifers), about the water levels in their area, What they mean, how they change and what these changes signify.
Hydrologic Cycle The continuous movement of water above, on and below the earth’s surface.
• Aquifer Mapping and Management Program of Government of India, to be executed by the Central Ground Water Board envisages Water Literacy • will culminate in Participatory Ground Water Management • The ultimate goal of the program is village level aquifer-based groundwater management - requires capacity building • Capacity Building - another form of water literacy
In the end we must understand that people need to be educated that • water is not free, • there is a huge investment for its infrastructure • subsequent to this Ground Water can be adequately priced • the very cause of Ground Water Over Exploitation is the lack of cost and free ownership • all products on earth need water to be produced hence water plays an important role in the GDP of the country. But the cost of these products does not include the cost of water because water is free both in terms of cost and ownership. • This needs to be changed for creating a sustainable and better world and a better .
THANK YOU