Global Water Scarcity

Global Water Scarcity
 

News: According to a newly published book, unconventional water sources can help beat global water scarcity.

Methods of Unconventional Water Sources:
Enhancing Rain via Cloud-Seeding
• Global research on cloud-seeding technology indicates that precipitation can be increased up to 15% of the  annual norm, depending on the available cloud resources and technical systems used.
• However, it was acknowledged that greater research was needed on the variability of the technology in different areas.

Ice-Bergs
• They account for World’s largest source of freshwater. 
• Climate Change is causing polar ice caps to melt and break, and scientists, scholars, and leaders have  discussed ‘towing’ polar ice caps to countries with water shortages. 
• UAE proposed a similar plan back in 2017 but no action was taken on this front. 

Municipal Wastewater
• Ensuring proper treatment of municipal wastewater is already underway in several countries as a major  resource of water for agriculture. 
• Several countries have launched successful initiatives to treat wastewater to meet demand. 

Ballast Water 
• It is another transportable resource – freshwater or saltwater held in ballast tanks and cargo holds of ships  to provide stability and maneuverability during a journey. 
• Around 10 billion tonnes of ballast water is discharged globally every year in accordance to international norms, this water needs to be desalinated. When Desalination is used to treat ballast water, the end  product (desalinated water) is free of invasive aquatic organisms and unhealthy chemical compounds,  making it usable for public water supply and irrigation. 
 

Drainage Water
• Drainage water used in irrigation in agriculture also has potential for reuse, but is hindered due to its high  salinity. Careful management and promotion of salt-resistant crops can be the solution for this. 

Fog Harvesting and Micro-Catchment Rainwater Harvesting
• Efficient Fog Harvesting systems wherein moisture in fog is collected through rocks, flora or mesh nets can  yield within 20 litres per square      metre, for a decade. 
• Micro-catchments have also shown potential for households or farmlands in dry environments with low  rainfall. 

Current State of Water Scarcity in India
• Although India has 16% of the world’s population, the country possesses only 4% of the world’s freshwater  resources.
• In recent times, the water crisis in India has become very critical, affecting millions of people across India.
• As many as 256 of 700 districts in India have reported ‘critical’ or ‘overexploited’ groundwater levels  according to the most recent Central Ground Water Board data (from 2017).
• Three-fourths of India’s rural families lack access to piped, drinkable water and must rely on unsafe  sources.
• India has become the world’s largest extractor of groundwater, accounting for 25% of the total. Some 70%  of our water sources are contaminated and our major rivers are dying because of pollution.

Key Recommendations
• Promoting further research and practice on both technical and nontechnical aspects of unconventional  water resources.
• Ensuring that unconventional waters provide benefits, not cost to the environment.
• Positioning unconventional waters as a reliable source of water in times of uncertainty.
• Supporting complementary and multidimensional approaches such as addressing water scarcity and  climate change together