The Great Indian Thirst

https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/

With the onset of summers, the worrysome thing in my locality is whether our locality's well would be able to give us water for the three cruel hot months ahead...?? By the way we (the people in my locality) are not the only ones who go through the same thought process every summers.

As per NITI Aayog report of 2018 stated :

• That nearly 600 million or nearly half of India's population, almost half of India's population faces extreme water crisis.
  
  
• 75% of rural households doesn't have piped, potable water .
  
  
• Those households rely on sources which can have serious implications on human health.
  
  
• 70% of our sources are contaminated.
  
  
• Major rivers are dying due to insane amount of pollution in them.
  
  
• Groundwater table is depleting at a rapid pace and India is World's largest extractor of Ground water accounting for almost 25% .

All in all we are suffering from "worst water crisis" and going towards even more critical crisis in the coming future.

It is evident from the above facts and figures that we have to do something about it ..but what can we do on individual basis  to atleast help us form the water crisis that we fear to face every summers...??

Water conservation ways can be performed on many levels : 

• National (measures by central gov. like Jal Shakti mission) 
  
  
• State level ( every state have their own policies and it varies )
  
  
• Regional/local level ( Municipal corporations)
  
  
• Individual level (the most important as if we won't put our hands up and cooperate with the policymakers then the situation won't change and will constantly degrade day by day, year by year)
  
  
  

So what Individual steps can we take to do our part for conserving it for toady and for future..??

we all might have heard of 3R principles of conservation in our school level i.e., Reuse, Reduce and Recycle.

let's just extend the limit and understand it in a broader way the various ways through which we can conserve the water 

Every individual can follow the 5R principles to conserve the water on their own

Talking about the different techniques in detail, there are many simple techniques which anyone can implement on their own level

1. Reducing the water usage 

water usage can be reduced by adjustments such as closing off the tap water while brushing, by taking bath from a bucket of water instead of using showers as 2 to 3 times of water is used while taking bath from showers instead of using buckets.

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2. Reusing water 

RO water Reuse

RO water purifying system generates 60 L of waste water for every 20 L of purified water for such a high waste water generation rate one should reuse waste water generated from RO systems 

RO wasterwater can be reused in many areas:

• Uing it for watering the plants
• car washing: Car washing can be done with a maximum TDS level of  1200-1500 ppm. So the water reuse can be done in this manner.
• Washing Utensils.
• Mopping the surface.
  
  

  

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3. Rethinking before using  

rethinking before using it many a times for e.g., washing car every 15 days instead of every other week. If a certain activity can be avoided to conserve the water in hot summer season.

4. Water Recycling 

Water Harvesting 

Water recycling can be done by using water harvesting techniques 

Nowadays government is also giving subsidy over rain water harvesting to recharge the ground water table.

harvested water can also be used for drinking purposes.

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Greywater OR Sullage

Greywater or sullage is the wastewater generated in households or office buildings without addition of any fecal contaminants and contains fewer pathogens than domestic water.

It can be recycled using Membrane technique as it is safer to handle and easier to use.

Can also be reused onsite for toilet flushing, toilet flushing or crop irrigation.

Ways which can work on National Level are also the most important

1. Desilting of reservoirs

As the water we use for our daily needs comes from the reservoirs/dams and the rivers connecting to it fills them up. But some of the capacity of the reservoirs gets depleted because of the accumulation of silt on the base of those reservoirs 

So desilting can be done on a more frequent basis in the summers as to icrease the cpacity of dams and as when the monsoon comes it can store more amount of water thus helping in reducing water scarcity of some areas.

2. Interlinking of Rivers 

interlinking of rivers can be done but with a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment so as to find out whether the interlinking of river will have a negative impact on some important locations or not.

With the help of interlinking of rivers with the perennial rivers most of the rivers in India can have water throughout the year with the help of construction of more reservoirs to fulfill the demand of already shooting population.

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hopefully many of us after reading this blog would alter a bit in their usage and would think of giving water conservation a shot this summer :) 

Thankyou for reading till this last sentence ... :)