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Management is all about optimization of resources, and when we are talking about water—a resource that is essential for sustaining life—its management becomes infinitely more important.
Management is all about optimisation of resources, and when we are talking about water—a resource that is essential for sustaining life—its management becomes infinitely more important. My little knowledge of the complex subject of water management comes from- (a) being a trustee of the Climate Project Foundation, India since 2010 and (b) long before that, my company worked on a simple hand pump that helped make available potable water to perhaps half a million villages in India and Africa, from the late 1970s till the turn of the century. During this long innings, in 1981, a routine business visit took me to a village and what transpired there made a huge impact on my thinking about water, making me a self-appointed conservationist. Let me first share that nostalgic story.
On my first visit to a pump installation in a village near Bhopal, as our vehicle started climbing uphill, someone noticed the familiar white UNICEF vehicle and by the time we reached at the location, there were 200 to 300 people gathered around the shining galvanised steel structure—our pump. They put a garland, an aum, and a swastika symbol with vermillion on it and also lit an agarbatti (incense stick). As we got close, my escort told an elderly gentleman standing next to the pump, “Baba, in sahaab ki company yeh pump banati hai”; before I knew what was happening the gentleman fell at my feet. I was very embarrassed, raised him, and said, “Aap mere se badein hain, aisa kyon kar rahe hain”? His answer left me speechless. He said, “Sahaab aap nahin samjhenge, is pump ne hamari jindgi badal di hai; bhagwan ke baad hum is ki pooja karte hain.” We drove over a rocky terrain to a rain-fed pond, which, till the pump was installed, was their only source of water for the 500 odd residents, as well as their livestock.
That night I was unable to sleep. We city folk take water for granted as it is available 24x7 just at the turn of a faucet, and here were 500 of my countrymen who had to trudge miles every day for collecting a bucket of water! Overnight I became sort of an activist. I swore to myself that I would do my best to prevent anyone from wasting even a drop of water.
My company had been manufacturing these positive displacement deep well hand pumps since the mid-seventies. Based on a Swedish design, developed under the aegis of UNICEF, the simple steel structure could easily pump out 1000 litres of water every hour from a depth of up to 100 metres. Most villages have been covered with these ‘miracle pumps’, but there are new problems now. Let me start with the demand-supply situation for the country. As ‘consumer connect initiatives’ in several major national dailies pointed out recently, on the occasion of ‘World Water Day’ on 22 March, our country accounts for 18 per cent of the world population but we have only 4 per cent of the global water resources and a mere 2.4 per cent of the world’s land area. Our per capita water availability (per person per annum) is already down to around 1,100 m3 whereas the international community considers anything less than 1,700 as a situation of water stress. As if that was not enough 1,000 m3 is recognised as the threshold of ‘water scarcity’ so we are staring at that frightening a situation. To add insult to injury, despite the looming scarcity, we are one of the largest water users per unit of GDP, which is a sad commentary on our inefficient use of this life sustaining resource. Looking at the near future, our requirement of 1,100 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2017 is expected to grow to 1,200 bcm in 2025 and 1,447 bcm in 2050. The big question before the government and the people is ‘how will this humungous requirement be met’? There are indeed no easy answers but it is quite clear that we have to learn to conserve with a missionary zeal and we have to make sure that not a single drop of water is wasted.
The problem is further exacerbated as a lot of our water is contaminated with chemical effluents from the factories, faecal matter, leachate from garbage dumps, fluorides, and arsenic. This UN initiative of celebrating ‘World Water Day’ every year is excellent as it hopefully sensitises some of us by throwing the issues right in our face without mincing any words.
Total annual rainfall in India—estimated at 4,000 billion cubic metres (bcm)—is nearly four times our current requirement and three times the projected requirement in 2050. So the big management challenge is to capture enough of this bounty. Sadly, our present estimated capture is only around 8% per cent and the rest just flows into the sea. The issue is complex as the rainfall is neither uniform throughout the year nor is it distributed evenly across the country. Just to give you a flavour of the acute diversity, 75 per cent of all rains happen in about five months—May to September. Only three states— J&K, Himachal, and Uttarakhand, experience significant rains almost all year round. Geographically, against the 119 cm annual average rainfall for the whole country, North East, Meghalaya Hills, and Western Ghats get about 250 cm and that figure for Northern Kashmir and Western Rajasthan is a mere 40 cm!
The same story is repeated in case of groundwater; whereas many parts of the country draw much more than the replenishment, there is underutilisation of the same in Eastern and Northeastern states. On an overall basis, water is in dire need of better and more scientific management. Groundwater has emerged as the backbone of India’s agriculture as well as drinking water security. Sharp decline in water levels due to withdrawal exceeding the annual replenishment is a matter of great concern in many parts of the country over the last few decades.
State governments and the Centre have to work in cohesion on both the dynamic assessment of resources as well as course correction of usage. Even though the annual groundwater recharge at 436 bcm is quite healthy and after providing for some natural discharge about 400 bcm is available for extraction. And against this, the total actual extraction at about 62 per cent is only 245 bcm, but the trouble starts with grossly uneven replenishment and extraction across the country. Some states in the country withdraw water totally indiscriminately due to various reasons like ‘free water and electricity’ as a political tool leading to high water consumption and unnecessary crops which are sold to the government under the grossly misutilised MSP scheme and often rot in the FCI godowns or even out in the open due to lack of storage space. According to an independent World Bank report, the number of bore wells in the country has grown from one million to whopping 20 million in 50 years. The report suggests integration of demand and supply side solutions. They are actually running joint programmes with GoI for groundwater management, albeit, with mixed results, largely due to weak regulatory action. Thankfully land rights to groundwater are not absolute as used to be the case earlier.
So what is being done to ameliorate the situation and what more needs to be done? Actually none of the data shared by me is based on any original research by me. Senior managers, who are readers of this magazine, owe it to the country to address these issues by- a) trying to influence the governments to stop wrong practices like free/subsidised water and electricity that encourage unsuitable crop patterns; (b) helping the governments do a more efficient and effective job; (c) use their corporate R&D departments to come up with better and more affordable solutions; (d) disseminate information through their vast networks about seriousness of the matter and inspire their employees and all stakeholders to get involved in the water conservation programmes in their homes, societies, clubs, workplaces, religious centres….really everywhere they come in contact with.
In general, we all can do our bit to conserve water:
The Bayer purification process
During a visit to the Bayer Chemicals plant at Leverkusen, north of Cologne, the concerned engineer was showing us around their effluent treatment system that discharged treated water into a beautiful, wide, but shallow channel that ran through lovely greenery and flower plants. At the end of the channel, as we were admiring the picturesque place, he took a paper cup, filled it up from the channel, and drank it; also inviting all of us to feel free to do so leaving us all speechless at the thoroughness of their treatment plant.
To shower or not to?
A simple study has shown that showering by rinsing the body, turning off the faucet while applying soap and shampoo, and turning it on again to rinse uses about 30 litres of water, whereas showering without closing the faucet consumes around 60 litres, and pressure showers and jacuzzis guzzle up to 100 litres. Turning to sustainable methods of showering alone can help us save around 3.4 bcm of this precious commodity every year. And this is just our bath; there is great potential to save water in other routine activities like washing hands, brushing, shaving, ROs, condensate from air conditioners, indiscriminate hosing down of cars and driveways, lawns, and so on. Almost every day we read about dire predictions like 40 per cent of the Indian population not having access to drinking water by 2030; metro cities and big towns going dry in the coming decades; decline in per capita water availability. I don’t think the purpose of these reports is to frighten us; as a matter of fact, it is important that we are continuously reminded about the deteriorating situation and get down to taking some action.
If there is one shining example amongst all countries in the world, Israel deserves a salute. A nation with scanty rainfall, it optimises its water resources recycling 90 per cent of all waste water; uses micro irrigation, despite the fact that they invented drip irrigation; and meets 80 per cent of its needs through relatively inexpensive desalination plants.
Closer home, we have our own water management ‘hero’ in the form of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the chief architect of our Constitution, who played a key role in initiating water management in the country way back in the early 1940s. From 1942 to 1946, Dr. Ambedkar served as a member of the Viceroy’s executive council, primarily responsible for labour, irrigation, and power. This is when the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) was taken up. Ambedkar opposed the Viceroy’s prejudiced choice of a British expert to work as the chief engineer and succeeded in getting an American engineer, with experience in Tennesse Valley Corporation, in that position. DVC ushered in other projects like the Bhakra Nangal Dam, Hirakud Dam, and Sone River Valley projects. If this great man had buckled in before the Viceroy, perhaps all these projects may not have seen light of the day.
Time to get into ‘mission mode’. I have full faith in the ingenuity of our scientists, technologists, and managers to get a firm grip on the situation sooner than later.
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