The Hindu Business Line : Preparing for water security

This year's theme of World Water Day - `Coping with Water Scarcity' - draws attention to the need to focus on conservation of water resources for even a water-blessed State such as Kerala.

Last Thursday, celebrations were held around the globe to mark the World Water Day, whose observance is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

This year's theme - `Coping with Water Scarcity' - draws attention to the growing implication of water scarcity worldwide and the need for increased integration and cooperation to ensure sustainable, efficient and equitable management of scarce water resources, both at international and local levels.

According to the United Nations, water scarcity is a fact of life for 700 million people around the world, a figure that could rise to more than three billion by 2025.

Cross-border management

In a message to mark this year's World Water Day, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, called for integrated cross-border water management since many of the world's rivers and aquifers are shared among countries.

If current shortages continue, say scientists, two-thirds of the people on the planet will not have adequate access to clean water by the year 2025, and women and children will be - as they currently are - the most affected.

Should Kerala, with its high average annual rainfall and two monsoons that ensure the State is kept wet and humid for more than six months of the year, be unduly worried about these dire premonitions?

After all, Kerala receives an average annual rainfall of 3,107 mm, almost thrice the all-India average of 1,197 mm, blessing the State with around 7,030 crore cubic metres (cu m) of water.

Although parts of Kerala's lowlands may average only 1,250 mm of rainfall annually, the cool mountainous eastern highlands of Idukki district, which is Kerala's wettest region, receive over 5,000 mm of orographic precipitation (that which occurs on the windward side of mountains and is caused by the rising air motion of a large-scale flow of moist air across the mountain ridge). Around 4,200 crore cu m of water are available for human use annually. In Kerala, 83 per cent of the urban population and 63 per cent of rural dwellers have access to the supply of piped potable water.

Yet, however comfortable these statistics may appear, they do not add up to a really cushy situation. According to the Kerala State Planning Board, the fresh water availability of Kerala, from available estimates, is 77.35 billion cu m (BCM), including regenerated flow from ground water.

However, nearly 40 per cent of the available water resource is lost as runoff. The utilizable resources according to official assessment, is around 42 BCM. But - and here is the critical catch - the State's total requirement for water for various purposes like irrigation and domestic consumption, countering saline water intrusion, and so on, is estimated at 49.70 BCM. That gap of nearly 8 BCM needs to be bridged each year.

Conservation

That can be done only, as some social and environmental activists pointed out in Kochi on World Water Day, through the conservation of water resources. Considering that large quantities of water are routinely wasted through leakages in the pipelines of the Kerala Water Authority in several parts of the State, much of the onus on conservation lies with the State Government.

Official wisdom appears to be on display. Inaugurating the World Water Day observance organized by the Department of Water Resources, Kerala's Minister for Water Resources, Mr N.K. Premachandran, announced that the Government would accord prime importance to the conservation of existing sources of water and the scientific determination of water quality in these sources as part of the social water security drive that will be carried out this year.

Fifty sources of water will be identified in each ward of the 999 panchayats in the State, the Minister said, and the quality of water from them would be scientifically determined. Field test kits will be distributed to students in schools and colleges to help them become part of the quality testing initiative.

As part of the social water security campaign, the Government plans to consolidate rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge programmes under one agency so as to ensure better planning and coordination in implementation. Also, plans are afoot to set up a body with statutory powers to protect and preserve the river wealth of the State.

Without such measures - and the increasing awareness among the State's residents of the need for responsible and sustainable consumption of water - next year's World Water Day will see Kerala in deeper waters, metaphorically speaking.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com