Mother Earth Or Mother Water

2009·0.89 MB·

by  Asad R Rahmani

Editorial
Mother Earth or Mother Water
—
“Whiskey’sfordrinking, water’sforfighting over” Mark Twain
Though water covers more than 70 per cent ofour A holistic river-basin approach, with conservation
blueplanet,97percentissaltyandnon-potable.Ofthe and sustainable-use in mind, should be developed
remaining three per cent, two percent is locked up in for all our rivers and waterbodies. But looking at the
snowandice,leavingonlyonepercentasliquidsurface result of the Ganga Action Plan, now renamed the
andground waterforuse. We usetwo-thirdofthis one National Ganga RiverBasinAuthority, it appears that
percent to grow ourfood. wehavealongwaytogo. Duringthelasttwodecades,
Decadesofmisuse,overuse, andpollutionofwater Rs. 36,000 crores have been spent on cleaning the
hasleftuswithadeepwatercrises. Ifimmediate steps Ganga, but the riveris as dirty as ever. There is a lack
for water conservation are not taken, climate change of coordination between the irrigation, hydropower,
will furtheraggravate thiscrises. Ourwaterdemands, rural development and environment ministries. Most
and the millions ofdaily mutinies that we see in our importantly, there is lack of appreciation of the
cities, towns and villages everyday over water, will ecological and environmental role of our rivers and
keepgrowing,ashumanpopulationaddsby83million natural water-bodies. Unless we change our thinking,
every year. As our country develops, water demands engineering solutions to ecological problems will not
will grow. Wateruse rises with wealth andchanges in save ourwaterresources.
life-style. Forexample, anAmerican uses 100gallons We have to decide whether we want engineering
of water daily, while in dry poor countries, it may be solution to our water crises - megadams, long canals
as low as 5 gallons. Forty-six per cent of individuals or pipelines, new technology to extract depleting
on ourplanetdogetpiped waterup to theirhomes. In underground fossilwater-or,conservationapproaches
some countries, women have to walk up to 8-10 km whichrestoredepletedreservoirsandaquifers,protect
every day to fetch water. In many towns and villages aquatic ecosystems, stop pollution of rivers, covers
of India, people have to survive on limited ‘tanker- catchmentareasinnaturalvegetative,startssustainable
water’ as they have already polluted or depleted their rainwater harvest, and result in equitable and fair
watersources. distribution ofwaterforall communities, both human
Human civilization is closely linked to freshwater andnon-humans(plantsandanimals).Wethoughrequire
ecosystems.Cities,towns,villages,industries,thermal new technologies in agriculture (e.g. micro-sprinklers
power plants, chemical plants, agriculture fields are replacing Hood irrigation, developing dryland-tolerant
concentratedalongsidewater-bodies.Throughdecades crops), pollution cleanup and quick treatment of
of neglect, the Ganga, Jamuna, Godavari, Sutlej, wastewater, we also have to maintain the minimum
Sabarmati are dying due to untreated sewage, non- ecological flow in all rivers which is required for the
degradable litter, industrial effluents and chemical basic ecological functions of a river. We have to
pollution. For over thousand years, citizens of Delhi rememberthatwecannotachieve8-10percenteconomic
receivedpotablewaterfromtheJamunaandwells,but growth in the coming years which the Government of
now drinking water for Delhi comes from the Ganga India is hoping, withoutcleaning ourriversystems.
and Beas rivers 400 km away. Similarly, Hyderabad Rivers, wetlands and swamps make up less than
and Secundrabad get potable water from the Krishna 0.3 per cent offresh water and less than 0.01 per cent
116 km away and Manjira river, 60 km away. The ofall the wateron Earth. Yetthese waters are home to
Hussain Sagarbuilt forthe twin-cities is now heavily as many as 1,26,000 of the world’s animal species.
pollutedanditswaterisunfitforhumanconsumption. Almost 43 per cent of the 30,000 known species of
There are many such examples all overIndia. fishliveinfreshwaterlakesandrivers. Indiahasabout
STATUSAND CONSERVATION OF WILD BUFFALO IN PENINSULAR INDIA
2,500fishspecies,ofwhich930speciesarefreshwater insomeplacesevenfaster.Asourplanetbecomeshotter,
inhabitants. Many species have become extinct or the melting of glaciers will increase incrementally as
locally extinct due to pollution, destruction of their hot airholds more water molecules than cold. Natural
habitatandintroductionofinvasivespecies.According meltingofglaciersduring summerand monsoon plays
toIUCN, freshwateranimals are disappearing atarate animportantroleinmaintainingtheflowoftheserivers
four to six times faster than animals on land or at sea, whichfeedsone-thirdofIndia’spopulation. Onashort
and freshwater fishes are much more threatened with term,wemayhavemorewaterinourrivers,butslowly
extinction than the seafishes. when the glaciers disappear, little water will be left to
TheHimalayanglaciers,coveringmillionsofsquare feedthese mighty rivers.
kilometers, contain the largest volume of ice outside Marq de Villiers in his book water wars has said
the polar regions. One third ofthe human population, that there is enough waterforeveryone on this planet,
nearly two billion people depend on these glaciers as itis distribution and use that are the problem. Whether
they feed on Asia’s famous rivers such as the Ganges, we will clean up our watery mess and learn to use it
Brahmaputra,MekongandYangtze.Climatechangeand sustainably, or go to war for the precious remaining
heatingofourPlanet is threateningthese glaciers.The clean water, only time will tell.
Tibetan plateauasawholeisheatinguptwiceasfastas
the global average of 1.3 Foverthe pastcentury-and Asad R. Rahmani
134 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 106 (2), May-Aug 2009