if you want to help keep our waters clean, there are many things you can do to help. You can prevent water pollution of nearby rivers and lakes as well as groundwater and drinking water by following some simple guidelines in your everyday life. Conserve water by turning off the tap when running water is not necessary. This helps prevent water shortages and reduces the amount of contaminated water that needs treatment. Be careful about what you throw down your sink or toilet. Don’t throw paints, oils or other forms of litter down the drain. Use environmentally household products, such as washing powder, household cleaning agents and toiletries. Take great care not to overuse pesticides and fertilisers. This will prevent runoffs of the material into nearby water sources. By having more plants in your garden you are preventing fertiliser, pesticides and contaminated water from running off into nearby water sources. Don’t throw litter into rivers, lakes or oceans. Help clean up any litter you see on beaches or in rivers and lakes, make sure it is safe to collect the litter and put it in a nearby dustbin. • India has 16 per cent of the world’s population and four per cent of its fresh water resources. • Estimates indicate that surface and ground water availability is around 1,869 billion cubic metres (BCM). Of this, 40 per cent is not available for use due to geological and topographical reasons. 4 • Around 4,000 BCM of fresh water is available due to precipitation in the form of rain and snow, most of which returns to the seas via rivers. 4 • Ninety two per cent groundwater extracted is used in the agricultural sector, five and three per cent respectively for industrial and domestic sector. • Eight nine per cent of surface water use is for agricultural sector and two per cent and nine per cent respectively are used by the industrial and domestic sector. While on the one hand the pressures of development are changing the distribution of water in the country, access to adequate water has been cited as the primary factor responsible for limiting development. The average availability of water remains more or less fixed according to the natural hydrological cycle but the per capita availability reduces steadily due to an increasing population. • In 1955, the per capita availability was 5,300 cubic metres (cu.m) per person per year, which came down to 2,200 cu. m in 1996.5 • It is expected that by around 2020, India will be a ‘water stressed state with per capita availability declining to 1600 cu m/person/year.4 A country is said to be water stressed when the per capita availability of water drops below 1700 cu. m/person/year.6
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 13:26:18 +0000
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