Sai Ram
Ground Water – Life-line of the Nation
Planet
Earth, the Only place for Living
Earth, a
planet, where we live is reverently addressed as “Mother Earth” for its uniqueness.
Obviously, the term ‘Mother’ occupies a very significant position in view of
the fact that ‘Mother’ has no substitute, so also the Earth, which bestows
myriad of natural resources for Mankind, which, in realty is used and misused
today. One of the most treasured resources is Water, without which even
a small leaf of grass cannot find its existence. While there is extensive
exploitation of natural resources, WATER is the most prominent one, heat of
which is faced today.
Preamble
of Mother Earth:
Scientific
studies have revealed that Mother Earth is nearly 4.543 Billion years old, with
a radius of 6370 Kms and 510 Million sq.Km of surface area, located at a
distance of nearly 150 million kms from Sun, another main source of lifeline, Light
and Heat. The population of earth is appx 7.50 Billion, which is growing
exponentially, except in some isolated corners. Population wise, China leads
with 1.35 Billion, followed by India, the largest democracy, with 1.3 Billion
and USA, the oldest democracy with just about 330 Million, about a fourth of
Inda! With varied technological advancement, little can be done in finding an
alternate for Natural resource; Water is major among them.
Causes for Depletion
of Water, a Natural Resource:
It is needles
to mention that with the constantly increasing population and human related
activities, the consumption of water has also accelerated; efforts are hardly made
to replenish, since the competition with Nature is complex. When this fact is
well understood by the Human race – despite advancement of technology, there
must be concerted efforts to either conserve Water or contemporary technology
must be adopted to find an alternate to mitigate disproportionate increase or
exploitation vis-à-vis consumption, considering Population rise as the chief
cause.
Effects of unavailability
of Water:
On a lighter
note, even the adolescent age group is well aware in today’s circumstances that
the end effect of depleted natural water resource is Litigation and protest!
Which is an indication that acute scarcity of water has driven the human race
to confront each other, both socially and legally, rather than getting down to
the business of evaluating the problem from the angle of exploring an amicable
solution for co-existence. It is very apt to recall the ancient adage “Live and
Let Live” – which has become a fancy tool for usage only during discussions and
debates, but not a real-time practice!
The custom of Water
usage as a natural resource is a global phenomenon; the society, that consists
of Human habitat, animal and plant kingdom, in addition to several simulated
sectors is totally dependent on Water. This may include Industrial sector,
Power generation, Agriculture, Services, Health care, Sports & Recreation
to name a few. As long as the usage of Water is judicious, as long as the
technology allows the use of water without conversion of its physical state – as
long as the abuse of water is not a practice – there may not be much argument
about its conservation or scarcity. When nature-friendly practices are seldom followed-
trouble starts.
Water as a
resource in Indian subcontinent:
If the problem
of Water scarcity is seen as a matter of stark importance from the angle of
Indian subcontinent, it attains greater significance, both within the country
and in respect of its neighbours. In fact, during the British era, during pre-independence,
the system adopted for administration was different from what it is today;
there were few provinces unlike today, where we have several states and each
state divided in to Districts, Taluks, Hoblis etc. The states with few
districts originally have been further divided in to more Taluks, said to be
for better administration; all this means more power centers, with the same or
depleted amount of water resources. The situation became more and more
intriguing after independence, more confrontations cropped-up, since the thought
given for sharing of natural resources was based on a democratic structure. The
nature is neither aware of the technological advancement the mankind is
adopting nor the plans he has for his survival with scant respect to the
nature, though not easy, which is facing threat of exploitation and depletion.
When the greed
of development was the slogan of the day for every successive administration,
little or no respect was paid for the preservation of the noble Gift of Nature.
With rapid growth of economy, industrialisation was inevitable; industrialisation
necessitated for employment, which obviously demanded more people to take-up
jobs; the next best source of manpower was easily found at a low cost from
rural locations – who did not wait long to migrate; when urban population
increased, there was naturally a necessity to pay attention to housing that
called for conversion of farm lands in to residential plots for human habitat,
causing depletion of green cover; with
the increase in dwellings, the commercial activities were on the upswing; when
the extent of land available for housing and commerce were inadequate,
especially in urban locations, encroachments were abetted even by the
governments; water bodies like lakes and ponds were filled-up and became areas for
living; wherever few water bodies were left untouched in the domestic limits,
they failed to receive any source of natural water since the catchment vanished
; with more colonies, more residential and industrial lay-outs, water bodies
vanishing, mankind did not even think of any reasonable alternative but only thought
of drawing ground water, that too recklessly; when ‘Man’ was successful, in his
first few attempts, he became greedy which multiplied; he concentrated on
deep-wells alone and totally forgot that the source of water for the deep-wells
that he is drilling day-in and day-out; even when the water levels in the
conventional open wells, that were judiciously used for the daily needs,
dropped due to deep-wells in the vicinity, the omniscient ‘Man’ did not take it
as an impending catastrophe, he ignored the warning about his manipulation of
the natural resources; he kept exploiting Mother Nature and only when he became
conscious of his follies, which he did not accept at once, that the depth of
bore-wells, which were once in two and three digits, finally proved to be a
failure even when they crossed four-digits, he became panicky, which he tried
to conceal, and started discussing about climate change, global warming, methane gas emissions etc in international forums! He was rather quick
in finding a scapegoat by pointing his fingers at de-forestation, industrialisation,
development, change of monsoon pattern …….. Etc; the problems compounded as the
days passed, since the damage was so extensive that the reversal was not as
easy as they are discussed.
Remedies
envisaged
Ironically,
the elected governments adopted a lack luster attitude to this monstrous issue
until it almost reached a point of no-return! As usual, a high-level panel of
experts was formed to discuss the causes and perils of ground water depletion, oblivious
of the fact that the damage was already caused! As a face saving measure, it
was in a hurry to implement certain regulations, in both domestic and agrarian
sectors, like Rain-water harvesting, drip irrigation, lake encroachment, afforestation,
cloud-seeding, re-use of sewage water for non-domestic use, conversion of
saline (sea) water for domestic use, river linking, rejuvenation of polluted
rivers like Ganges ….. to name a few! The magnitude of the problem was so
enormous that the effect of climate change was felt even in westernised
countries, which were considered to be practising ethical and nature–friendly
measures. Though the climate change or increase in ambient temperature was in
fractions, it was unbearable for the subtle lifestyles of westerners, who
became alert, realised that any further neglect of this gross issue may one day
harm them substantially. They categorically and conveniently forgot that the
reason for deforestation in underdeveloped countries was only to supply raw material
for the consumption of developments in the western world, keeping theirs intact!
Conclusion:
‘Man’ did realise, belatedly, despite his dominance
on technology, that any manipulations and efforts are no match to the gifts ‘Mother
Nature’ showers; predictably, he further concluded that any small aberration in
the use of natural resources for which there is absolutely no substitute, leads
to major debacles. The arrogance of Man was a lesson for not only the policy
makers but even the common men, who were under the frail impression that he can
draw the resources, perpetually!
Despite
all the exploitations, the good old adage:
“If you Tickle
the earth with a Hoe, she laughs with a Harvest!”
is
a stark reality, which the Mankind must not only preach, but Practice in
Letters and
spirits - because "Ground water is the Life Line of the Nation!"
Rajiv N. Magal
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