Effective Solutions to Eliminate Water Shortage in Rural Areas
It is estimated that by 2020 India will become a water-stressed nation as the average availability of water is reducing steadily with the growing population.
India will remain a predominantly rural nation even in the face of growing urban migration with 700 million people living in rural areas. This rural population is residing in over 15 diverse ecological regions. It is true that providing water for drinking and agriculture to such a large population is an enormous challenge given the non-uniformity in levels of awareness, social welfare, education, poverty, practices and rituals which add to the complexity of providing water.
Many rural communities in India who are situated on the outskirts of urban sprawl also have little choice but to drill wells to access groundwater sources. However, any water system adds to the overall depletion of water. There is no easy answer for India which must tap into water sources for food and human sustenance, but India’s overall water availability is running dry.
India’s water crisis is often attributed to lack of government planning, increased corporate privatization, industrial and human waste and government corruption. In addition, water scarcity in India is expected to worsen as the overall population is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by year 2050. To that end, global water scarcity is expected to become a leading cause of national political conflict in the future, and the prognosis for India is no different.
There are plenty of solutions available for this water crisis, but the main concern is to implement these solutions effectively. The major fact is that, many people in rural areas are not aware of such crisis. In this case, government agencies, NGOs and other social welfare organizations can play a major role to create awareness among people about this water crisis.
Conservation of water in the agricultural sector is essential since water is necessary for the growth of plants and crops. A depleting water table and a rise in salinity due to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has made matters worse. Significant water can also be saved by developing crop-specific guidelines for farmers so they can readily identify whether a particular technique is actually reducing water use and if so then by how much! Government agencies, social work activists and NGOs need to educate people to conserve water.
On a positive note, some rural areas of India are fortunate to have a relatively wet climate, even in the most arid regions. However, due to lack of awareness there are no rain catchment programs in place. Most of the water is displaced or dried up instead of used. In these areas, rain harvesting could be one solution for water collection. Collected water can be immediately used for agriculture, and with improved filtration practices the water-borne pathogens can be reduced. So, if government officials and social work activists visit these places and educate people about rain water harvesting then most of the water crises can be easily resolved.
ABOUT AUTHOR:-
Nikhlesh, a member of team Halabol Team, is a chemical engineer from N.I.T. and an MBA. He has written several articles for Halabol on different issues such as; social welfare, animal welfare, education, health, environment and youth affairs and social work. Here in this article he has briefly discussed about water shortage problems in rural areas and also he has suggested few effective solutions for this problem.
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