39 Challenges in Water Management

Nisha Rani

epgp books

 

 

 

Objectives:

  • To know water resources- at a glance
  • To understand water management
  • To explain importance and need of water conservation
  • To explain the main challenges in water management
  • To know solutions and strategies of water management

 

Concept Map

 

Water Resource Management

 

 

 

1.  Water Resources-at a Glance

 

Water covers 70.9% of the Earth’s surface and is vital for all known form of life. It is a basis of existence on the earth and is the foundation for human survival and development. It is a prerequisite not only for the preservation of the environment but for human health and well-being also. Water resources are sources of water that are potentially useful. At present only about 0.08 percent of all the worlds fresh water is exploited by mankind for ever increasing demand for sanitation, drinking, manufacturing, leisure and agriculture. World oceans cover about three fourth of earth’s surface. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water which has an electrical conductivity (EC) around 55 dSm−1 (total dissolved solids ≈ 35     000 mg l−1) and sodium (Na+) concentration more than 450     m mol l−1 (Suarez and Lebron, 1993). According to the UN estimates, the total amount of water on earth is about 1400 million cubic kilometer which is enough to cover the earth with a layer of 3000 meters depth. However the fresh water constitutes a very small proportion of this enormous quantity. About 2.7 per cent of the total water available on the earth is fresh water of which about 75.2 per cent lies frozen in Polar Regions and another 22.6 per cent is present as ground water. The rest is available in lakes, rivers, atmosphere, moisture, soil and vegetation effectively available for consumption and other uses. Water on the earth is in motion through the hydrological cycle. The utilization of water for most of the users i.e. human, animal or plant involves movement of water. Water resources have two facets, the first one is dynamic resource, measured as flow and more

relevant for most of developmental need; the other one static or fixed nature of the reserve, involving the quantity of water, the length of area of the water bodies.

 

But, in the last few decades’ rapid industrialization, urbanization, population growth and the associated consumerist culture have interfered with the natural hydrological cycle of rainfall, soil moisture, groundwater recharge, surface water and storage. The growing urban population in developing countries has generated demand well beyond the capacity of already inadequate water supply and sanitation infrastructure services. According to the UN World Water Development Report, by 2050, at least one in four people are likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of freshwater. It is predicted that by 2050, the per capita availability of water at the national level will drop by 40 to 50 percent due to rapid population growth and commercial use (Patnaik, 2011). Mankind and our activities are instrumental in polluting water bodies. This further leads to overuse, abuse and pollution of our vital water resources and has disturbed the quality and the natural cleansing capacity of water. Unless serious efforts are not being made to stop this malpractice, the coming generations will suffer acutely. We should think seriously about valuing water.

 

2.  Water Management

 

Water is one of the most crucial elements in developmental planning of any nation. Management of water resource involves a set of policies and regulations; it is not merely a technical issue but requires a mix of measures involving changes in policies, prices and other incentives along with infrastructure and physical installations. It is an activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water. Ideally, planning of water resource management consider all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water on an equitable basis to assure all uses and demands.

 

Water conservation involves the strategies and activities that are used to manage water resources, especially fresh water as a sustainable resource. Conservation aims at protecting the water environment and its resources from negative impacts in order to make them to be able to meet current and future demands, making them sustainable.

 

3.   Challenges in Sustainable Water Management

 

Water is widely present finite resource. Its property of universal solvent makes it highly vulnerable to pollution. Beside its abundance, high degrees of mismatch spatially and temporally are there between availability and demand at many places. It is a challenge to provide water of desired quantity and quality at a required place. This is especially true for monsoon climates where 70–90% of the annual rain falls in just 3–4 months. This leads to too much water and often floods in the wet season, and too little water and often droughts in the dry season. At times, enough water may be available but the quality may be so poor that it is of no use without treatment. Water conservation is one of the main problems societies are facing today. India is vulnerable to future water stress and facing crisis in water conservation due to poor management, unclear laws, and increased industrial and human waste. Climate change and increase in population growth has also exacerbated the crisis. The most affected are the communities at the lower class and Indian villages. Women and children also suffer most as they have to walk long distances to get water for domestic use. The use of water has been growing at more than twice the rate of population growth. Dry lands are the most affected since they do not have the right infrastructure to deal with this issue. Water scarcity and other challenges go hand in hand with poverty most of the times and eradicating this issue will lead to the improvement of poverty levels in the society (UN, 2012).

 

Sustainable water management poses numerous challenges: bridging the increasing gap between demand and supply, providing enough water for production of food, balancing the uses between competing demands, meeting the growing demands of big cities, treatment of wastewater, sharing of water with the neighbouring countries and among the co-basin states. In India, floods, water-logging, soil erosion, drought salty groundwater, etc. are some of the major problems of water management for agriculture and other needs. These challenges are briefly discussed over here.

 

3.1  Water and Gender

 

Gender differences is most significant among water related challenges worldwide i.e. the crisis of scarcity, deteriorating water quality and linkage between water and food security as well as need for improved governance. Local knowledge, social and gender dimensions and their implication are often neglected while making policies which are otherwise broad and based upon generalized perspectives.

 

Though women are primarily responsible for managing domestic water supply and promoting home and community-based sanitation activities, they are often overlooked in the planning and implementation of infrastructure projects. Men traditionally have a greater role in decision making.

 

The different groups of men and women in the society use resource differently. The integrations of gender sensitive approach to development can have positive impact on the effectiveness and sustainability that leads to new solutions to problems, help government to avoid poor investments and expensive mistakes. Their considerations can successfully be incorporated not only for water resource management but for other sectors also e.g. urban water supply, agriculture, industry and energy that depend upon water resources and conflict over water allocation and their demand for freshwater resources.

 

Mali, a country in North Africa is an arid area and involved many water projects. There are Community-Managed Wells which are drilled by the government. However, one case showed how an initiative can fail if women are not involved in planning. The Macina Wells project failed to incorporate an understanding of gender roles and inequalities in project planning. Management of the wells was handed over to (male) community leaders without consulting women in the planning of the new resource or its continued management. Women were allocated cleaning tasks. The systems and equipment set up were impractical for women, though they were the ones primarily responsible for collecting water from the well. As a result, at peak times, women dismantled the equipment and went back to their old ways of collecting water. Moreover, the men who were involved as caretakers failed to adequately fulfill their roles since water and sanitation were seen as a women’s domain.

 

3.2         Water and Agriculture

 

Water is the key to food security. Crops and livestock need water to grow. Agriculture accounts for 85 percent of India’s water consumption which provide subsistence and livelihood support to more than 58 percent of population. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization the world population is predicted to grow 8.3 billion in 2030 and 9.1 billion in 2050. By 2030, food demand is predicted to increase by 60%. India has well developed irrigation infrastructure that allows the country to be self sufficient in food grain production, reaching a record level of 250 million tons in 2011(Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, 2011). With increased Economic growth and individual wealth the diets are shifting from predominantly starch-based to meat and dairy, which require more water. Producing 1 kg rice, for example, requires about 3,500 L water, 1 kg beef some 15,000 L, and a cup of coffee about 140 L. This dietary shift is the greatest to impact on water consumption over the past 30 years, and is likely to continue well into the middle of the twenty-first century.

 

The agriculture produce travels through many hands from field to fork viz- farmers, transporters, store keepers, food processors, shopkeepers and consumers. Food can be wasted at every step along the value chain, which means that the water used to produce it is also wasted. With as much as 1.3 billion tons of food wasted annually (WWF, 2015), 250 km3 of water is being ‘lost’ per year due to food waste worldwide (FAO, 2013). India has heavily invested in irrigation infrastructure but its irrigation efficiency is poor. Many of the facilities operate, on average, at only 35 to 40 percent efficiency (MoEF Report, December, 2006). The chief grain producing states in India (Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Haryana, home to major water basins) has already crossed their surface irrigation potential and now farmers are withdrawing ground water and many of these regions have been categorized as water-stressed zones because the rate of withdrawal has either exceeded, or is about to exceed, the rate of recharging. Anthropogenic water logging in irrigation commands leads to the loss of productive land to agriculture and also the large inadvertent water evaporation/evapo-transpiration of the swampy areas.

 

3.3         Water and Energy

 

Water and energy are closely interlinked and interdependent. Energy generation and transmission requires utilization of water resources, particularly for hydroelectric, nuclear, and thermal energy sources. Recent interest in bio-fuels also creates an incremental demand on water resources; the World Water Development Report (2012) predicts that even a nominal increase in bio-fuel demand (say 5% of road transport by 2030, as predicted by International Energy Agency) could push up the water demand by as much as 20% of the water used for agriculture worldwide. Additionally, bio-fuel production is linked to increases in water pollution through increased use of fertilizers and agricultural chemicals. Conversely, about 8% of the global energy generation is used for pumping, treating and transporting water to various consumers. Co-production of water and energy, as is the case for geothermal energy generation, offers interesting opportunities to energy and water scarce countries.

 

Water, energy and food are inextricably linked and impose a great challenge but these are addressed in isolation with in sectoral boundaries. Fragmented sectoral responsibilities, lack of coordination and inconsistencies between laws and regulatory frameworks may lead to misaligned incentives. Water is an input for producing agricultural goods in the fields and along the entire agro-food supply chain. Energy is required to produce and distribute water and food (to pump water from groundwater, to power tractors, irrigation machinery, and to process & transport agricultural goods). Growing bio-energy crops under irrigated agriculture can increase overall water withdrawals and jeopardize food security. Converting surface irrigation into high efficiency pressurized irrigation may save water but may also result in higher energy use. Recognizing these synergies and balancing these trade-offs is central to jointly ensuring water, energy and food security.

 

3.4         Pressures of Industrialization and Urbanization

 

The demand of water for industry and domestic is increasing. According to Burton et al., 2011 it is estimated that it will double in absolute quantities by 2025, as compared to 2005 and will claim 11 and 8 percent, respectively, on total water demand. It is estimated that by 2050, more than half of India will be living in urban areas. The semi-urban and urban population would rely on urban water utilities. Most urban areas have to import water from further distances and many existing water utilities are either financially bankrupt or have huge transmission and distribution losses, as high as 50 percent. The quality of urban water infrastructure and water management will have to be upgraded to respond to growing demand. Many water-dependent industries run on India’s power grid, which in turn depends on hydroelectricity, nuclear, and coal facilities that requires water for cooling purposes.

 

3.5         Water Pricing

 

Pricing water is the key factor affecting the water situation in India. In order to meet the demand for water and manage it sustainably, the Indian government, along with its neighbors, will have to account for the economic value of water. Currently in India, the price charged to farmers and industry is highly subsidized, and authorities are not taking into account the vulnerability and scarcity of water resources when setting the prices. It is essential to consider income levels, the rural or urban setting, and the profitability of industries while setting real price of water.

 

3.6         Water and Climate

 

Climate variability has an impact on water resources and their management. Water is not only greatly affected by climate change, but is also a core component of climate. The hydrological cycle includes processes such as evaporation and precipitation that are predicted to shift with climate change, and can have important implications for fresh water supply for drinking water, rain-fed agriculture, groundwater supply, forestry, biodiversity, and sea level.

 

Water is the primary medium through which climate change influences Earth’s ecosystem and thus the livelihood and well-being of societies. The poor, who are the most vulnerable, are likely to be adversely affected. The global warming may affect the hydrological cycle which could result in further intensification of temporal and spatial variations in precipitation, snow melt and water availability. The projected implication of climate change and resulting warming in India will adversely affect the

water balance in different parts and quality of ground water along the coastal plains. Climate change is likely to affect ground water due to changes in precipitation and evapo-transpiration. Rising sea levels may lead to increased saline intrusion into coastal and island aquifers, while increased frequency and severity of floods may affect groundwater quality in alluvial aquifers. Increased rainfall intensity may lead to higher runoff and possibly reduced recharge. The economy of country like India is closely tied to its natural resources and climate sensitive sectors i.e. agriculture, water and forestry and this may face a threat because of projected changes in climate.

 

Adaptation to climate change is closely linked to water and its role in sustainable development. At 2.5°C warming, melting glaciers and the loss of snow cover over the Himalayas are expected to threaten the stability and reliability of northern India’s primarily glacier-fed rivers, particularly the Indus and the Brahmaputra. The Ganges will be less dependent on melt water due to high annual rainfall downstream during the monsoon season. The Indus and Brahmaputra are expected to see increased flows in spring when the snows melt, with flows reducing subsequently in late spring and summer. Alterations in the flows of the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers could significantly impact irrigation, affecting the amount of food that can be produced in their basins as well as the livelihoods of millions of people (209 million in the Indus basin, 478 million in the Ganges basin, and 62 million in the Brahmaputra basin in the year 2005. The frequency and intensity of flash floods will increased with melting glaciers and less water will flow during dryer seasons. Water storage facilities have to be improved to manage the source as increased intensity of rainfall during fewer days and drought in subsequent time of year. These include rehabilitating traditional water structures, increasing storage in natural waterways, and also in dams and ponds. Rising temperatures due to climate change, will drastically affect crops that will require more water to withstand heat.

 

3.7         Transboundary Water Conflict

 

Indispensability of water and its unequal distribution has often led to inter-state or international disputes. Issues related to sharing of river water have been largely affecting our farmers and also shaking our governments. According to The United Nations, water disputes result from opposing interests of water users, public or private, a conflict between countries, states, or groups over an access to water resources. Water conflicts are driven by growing demand for water, constrained by power asymmetries between stakeholders, and is subject to complex political dynamics which must be taken into consideration in any water sharing negotiation. There is a strong preference for bilateral (benefits more powerful), rather than multilateral (benefits the weaker parties), arrangements at both the inter-state level and the transboundary. The water management is hampered by the lack of adequate and reluctant sharing of hydrological data. Zero-sum attitudes i.e. lack of integrative thinking among all concerned parties toward water sharing Supply-side solutions dominated by technical perspectives from civil engineering, economics, and international law. The Inter-Linking Rivers Project in India is one of the prominent examples. Global discourse about ‘green’ hydropower dominates and drives dam construction. Elements of a water crisis may put pressures on affected parties to obtain more of a shared water resource, causing diplomatic tension or outright conflict. The broad spectrum of water disputes makes them difficult to address. Local and international law, commercial interests, environmental concerns, and human rights questions make water disputes complicated to solve combined with the sheer number of potential parties; a single dispute can leave a large list of demands to be met by courts and lawmakers.

 

About 40 % of the world’s population lives in river and lake basin shared by two or more countries that is more precisely approximately 90 % lives in countries share basins. The existing 276 transboundary lakes and river basins cover nearly one half of earth land surface and account for sixty percent of global freshwater flow. Worldwide about 2 billion people depend upon groundwater which includes approximately 300 transboundary aquifer systems. These basins and aquifers support the income and livelihood of hundreds of millions of people worldwide and link populations of different countries. These linkages create hydrological, social and economic interdependencies between societies and are vital for reducing poverty and attaining the Millennium Development Goals.

 

Potential transboundary impacts and conflicts can be best solved by cooperation, adequate legal and institutional frameworks, joint approaches to planning and sharing of benefits and related cost. Some water disputes are:

 

Water conflict in the Middle East: Three river basins, namely the Jordan, the Tigris-Euphrates and the Nile are the shared water resources for Middle East countries. Ethiopia controls the head waters of 80% of Nile’s flow and plans to increase it Sudan too is trying to divert more water. This would badly affect Egypt, which is a desert, except for a thin strip of irrigated cropland along the river Nile and its delta. Likewise there is a fierce battle for water among Jordan, Syria and Israel for the Jordan River water share. Probably, the next war in the Middle East would be fought over water and not oil.

 

The Indus Water Treaty: In 1960, the Indus water treaty was established vide which Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab were allocated to Pakistan and the Satluj, the Ravi and the Beas were allocated to India. Being the riparian state, India has pre-emptive right to construct barrages across all these rivers in Indian Territory.

 

The Cauvery water dispute: Out of India’s 18 major rivers, 17 are shared between different states. In all these cases, there are intense conflicts over these resources which hardly seem to resolve. Cauvery is an inter‐State basin having its origin Karnataka and flowing through Tamil Nadu and Puduchery before out falling in Bay of Bengal. The sharing of waters of the Kaveri River has been the source of a serious conflict between the two states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The genesis of this conflict rests in two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Kingdom of Mysore.

 

In this regard, Government of India on 2nd June, 1990 had constituted the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) to adjudicate the water dispute regarding inter‐state river Cauvery and the river valley thereof among the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry

 

The Satluj-Yamuna link (SYL) canal dispute: The issue of sharing the Ravi-Beas waters and SYL issue between Punjab and Haryana

 

3.8         Environmental Pollution

 

Environmental pollution is a by-product of economic development and goes unabated in many water bodies as a result of indiscriminate dumping of domestic, agricultural and industrial wastes. The water bodies are polluted mainly through point source (Industries) and non-point (agriculture and domestic sectors) pollution source. The point sources of pollution are simple to control and prevent but non point offers a great challenges. The chemical used in agriculture sector (fertilizer, pesticides, insecticide, salts) move along with the drainage from the root zone to underlying water table/ground water. This further leads to the pollution of surface water as ground water flow into streams. Another major source of pollution in water bodies found in varying concentration is ‘emergent pollutants’. These are synthetic or naturally occurring chemical or any microorganism that is not commonly monitored in the environment but has the potential to enter the environment and cause adverse ecological and human health effects. The main categories of emerging pollutants present in wastewater are pharmaceuticals (antibiotics, analgesics, anti-inflammatory drugs, psychiatric drugs, etc.), steroids and hormones (contraceptive drugs), personal care products (fragrances, sunscreen agents, insect repellents, microbeads and antiseptics), pesticides and herbicides, surfactants and surfactant metabolites, flame retardants, industrial additives and chemicals and plasticizers and gasoline additives. Emerging pollutants are rarely controlled or monitored. Slow accumulation of pollutants over the years in many rivers has made them aesthetically unpleasant and biologically and chemically toxic. Restoration of such rivers to environmentally acceptable levels is costly.

 

Many countries have enacted legislation to address this issue but the enforcement becomes difficult as the costs are passed back to the tax payers by the polluters as increased costs of their commercial products. Introduction of advanced methods of waste water treatment such as membrane technology, recycling, reclamation of waste water etc. help alleviate the pollution problem to some extent. In the long term, an integrated approach of water management in which all aspects of the water sector are considered and optimized within the framework of a single ecosystem appears to be the way forward.

 

3.9       Water Hazard

 

Water-related hazards account for 90% of all natural hazards, their frequency and intensity is generally rising. The human settlements in the disaster prone areas have negative consequences and thousands of people around the world affected worldwide every year. The variations in land use and climate change have altered the flood frequency statistics. Some 373 natural disasters killed over 296,800 people in 2010, affecting nearly 208 million others and costing nearly US$110 billion. According to the United Nations Global Assessment Report, since 1900 more than 11 million people have died as a consequence of drought and more than 2 billion have been affected by drought, more than any other physical hazard. Water-related hazards form a subset of natural hazards; the most significant ones include floods, mudslides, storms and related ocean storm surge, heat waves, cold spells, droughts and waterborne diseases.

 

Floods and droughts are part of the spatio-temporal variable water cycle dynamics and a natural phenomenon, the climate change and human interference have changed the frequency and severity of floods and droughts in many river basins worldwide. Urbanization, river channelization and other human activities, modify the storage capacity of catchments and impact groundwater recharge result in increased occurrence of water-related disasters. The frequencies of floods (Hirabayashi et al., 2013) and droughts (IPCC, 2013) are likely to change with increasing temperatures in coming decade.

 

3.10     Non-revenue water (NRW)

 

Water leaking from the water supply system is a vast problem in many cities across the world and comes from inadequate maintenance of the system, combined with few or no automatic measuring systems. It is unfortunately very common to find leakages of 40-70 % of the water produced and pumped to the end-users. However, it is not only water which is lost, but also the energy used to produce and distribute the water, which is wasted. In India it is estimated that between 40 and 50 per cent of the supplied water is lost due to leakages in pipes and connections. Because of this, a lot of water ends up being wasted while at the same time many Indians still do not have access to water. If the share of water wasted was brought down to 15 %, millions of people could have their share of water without a need for more water to be produced (Times of India report March-2014)

 

3.11     Water Governance-disconnect between State and Centre Government

 

Water governance is fragmented and, as a result, leads to inconsistent water policy between the central and state governments. This fragmentation makes the task of implementing a holistic policy faraway difficult. In India according to Constitution, each of the twenty-eight states of the Union is responsible for dealing with their own water issues. However, the federal government has the constitutional mandate to resolve issues that arise out of the use of interstate rivers. This complexity of governance in water sector and all levels from the central government down to the field level officials who deal with farmers and industry have to recognize the water challenges and the need for coordinated action for proper implementation of Water policies in India.

   4.  Solutions and Strategies

 

4.1         Ecosystem

 

Ecosystems are increasingly seen as solutions to water problems, not just as a casualty. This is a welcome and positive trend as it also reflects improvement in dialogue and a step towards better-integrated water resources management, and therefore more sustainable development.

 

Ecosystems – including, for example, forests, wetlands and grassland components – lie at the heart of the global water cycle. All freshwater ultimately depends on the continued healthy functioning of ecosystems, and recognizing the water cycle as a biophysical process is essential to achieving sustainable water management.

 

4.2         Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)

 

The World Water Council (2000) define the IWRM as a philosophy that holds that water must be viewed from a holistic perspective, both in its natural state and in balancing competing demands on it – agricultural, industrial and environmental. Management of water resources and services need to reflect the interaction between these different demands, and so must be coordinated within and across sectors.

 

4.3         Water Smart Agriculture

 

The world is now looking towards “water- smart” production by recognizing the links between water and other resources and socio- economics of poor harvest management. Automation, computer controlled decision support systems, on demand irrigation through creation of level pools in canals, using real time soil moisture data to decide irrigation doses etc. are important means of improving efficiency. In water scare and highly productive areas, these need to be implemented on a pilot basis. Subsidies would encourage this initially. More efficient techniques such as drip irrigation, low pressure sprinklers are currently being used to increase the water productivity.

 

4.4         Water- Food –Energy Nexus

 

To achieve water, energy and food security simultaneously, decision-makers of each single sector need to consider broader influences and cross-sectoral impacts. A nexus approach to sectoral management, through enhanced dialogue, collaboration and coordination is needed.

 

4.5         Proper pricing for water services

 

In order to meet the demand for water and manage it sustainably proper pricing of water should be done at each level (Domestic use, agriculture and Industrial). High-income households and large, water dependent sectors should pay more for water. This would include the landed elite, the beverage industry, recreation outlets (e.g., malls and parks), and other large manufacturing and commercial outfits.

 

5.  Conclusion

 

The demand for, availability, and varying use of water all have an impact on India’s water resource management and its relations with neighboring countries. The sustainable conservation of water on earth requires immediate attention, commitment and dedication of all. All the issues in management of water resources including societal and cultural are interconnected, therefore a holistic approach is needed to address the problem. A balance between use/development and conservation with modern technologies and traditional practices are required. The implementation of all the approaches needs will and commitment of stakeholders and sharing of resource in equitable manner. New technologies are key driver of the recent success of citizen science activities. Collaboration among all stakeholders is crucial to addressing global challenges and achieving common goals with a stronger focus on scientific and social values.

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References

 

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  • Report of the Working Group on Water Resources 2007–2012,” Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, December 2006 (http:// planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/wrkgrp11/wg11_wr.pdf)
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  • WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). 2015. The great wastage: From field to end user: Magnitude and environmental impact of food waste in Germany. WWF Germany.

 

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