SUBMITTED BY: SARAH REHMAN
M.ARCH SEM -2 (R.A)
D E S I G N
W I T H N AT U R E
WATER CONSERVATION
Introduction
Water is a very important resource in our life. Water is becoming scarce due to
increase in Population, industries and agricultural activities and due to poor rainfall. A
report of 2009 suggested that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water
demand will exceed supply by 50%. Water plays an important role in the world
economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and
facilitates industrial cooling and transportation.
Water conservation includes all the policies, strategies and activities
to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, to protect the hydrosphere,
and to meet the current and future human demand.
The goals of water conservation efforts include:
Ensuring the availability of water for future generations where the withdrawal
of freshwater from an ecosystem does not exceed its natural replacement rate.
Energy conservation as water pumping, delivery and wastewater
treatment facilities consume a significant amount of energy. In some regions of the
world over 15% of total electricity consumption is devoted to water management.
Habitat conservation where minimizing human water usage helps to
preserve freshwater habitats for local wildlife and migrating waterfowl, but
also water quality.
Methods of water conservation
1. Protection of Water from Pollution-
If the total fresh water available on the earth remains pollution free, it is sufficient to
meet the drinking water needs of the existing population of the world, unfortunately a
large portion of fresh water does not remain fit for use of the living world due to
increasing economic activities, urbanization etc.
Large cities located on banks of rivers are directly disposing off different wastes
without treatment in rivers. Similarly, tourism has spread pollution at war speed on
famous lakes and sea coasts. Man is greatly dependent on groundwater for his water
related necessities, but some special industrial units have also polluted this amount of
water stored in the security cover of the ground.
It is necessary to have a cooperative policy at the international level for control of oily
and radioactive pollution of the oceans.
2. Redistribution of Water:
Water found on the surface of the earth is not equally distributed. Existing form of
distribution also becomes a reason for the water crisis.
by arranging supply of water from areas having lesser demand to the areas having
greater demand, water crisis can be minimized. By construction of surface water
reservoirs and storage of excess water in them, supply can be made to scarcity affected
areas. This work can be accomplished by development of water reservoirs and canal
network.
3. Rational Use of Groundwater:
Groundwater meets 25 per cent of total supply of water in the world, remaining 75 per
cent supply is met by surface water sources of rivers, lakes etc. Demand for
groundwater goes on increasing in proportion to its available quantity due to which
quantity of groundwater goes on decreasing. After exploitation of groundwater, its re-
infiltration takes a very long time to complete.
Hence, groundwater exploitation should be only in proportion to its recharging
capacity.
4. Population Control:
Water crisis has assumed dangerous proportions due to fast increase in population and
deterioration in quantitative and qualitative aspects of water resources. Demand for
water is continuously increasing. Along with population increase, demand for fresh
water has increased due to expansion of industries and increasing urbanization.
5. Renovation of Traditional Water Sources:
In India, traditional water storage places have been able to meet the demand of
drinking water in many regions but they have been renovated from time to time. Water
stored in traditional water sources has been used for both purposes, agriculture as well
as for drinking.
Due to increasing area of agriculture, drainage area of water has been destroyed
resulting in reduction of water flow therein. This has caused crisis for the existence of
traditional water sources. Water crisis can be prevented by renovating traditional water
conservation sources. Unless complete conservation of rain water is done in any
region, the dream of water conservation cannot be fulfilled. Hence, supervision has to
be done regarding renovation of dying traditional water conservation places.
6. Use of Modern Irrigation Methods:
A large portion of water can be conserved by adoption of modern methods of
irrigation. Irrigation consumes double the quantity of water in comparison to all other
uses. Sprinkler and drip irrigation methods save 50 per cent water.
In drop or drip irrigation method, pipes with holes are spread over the surface of land
so that the crop directly receives water. There is no loss due to evaporation in this
system and almost 95 per cent water is utilized. Thus, maximum water is utilized by
this method. Improved modern irrigation methods are thus useful for conservation of
water.
