Drinking water to many of us is more precious than gold , that’s because although 70 % of Earth is water , only 2.5 percent of it is fresh water, and three-quarters of that is locked up in glaciers and permanent snow cover. Only 0.3 percent of the water is surface water, found in rivers and lakes. The rest is buried deep in the ground. The major source of domestic consumption is ground water. Ground water is primarily is used for irrigation, household consumption. Coming to the source for ground water, there are limited one, the primary source remains the rain, the second is how we dispose out the water, ultimately which seeps into the earth and maintains the ground water level. In many parts of the world the rate at which the water is used has surpassed the rate at which it is being replaced, causing a cry for availability of drinking water.
India is on the verge of acute ground water scarcity, with wide area is under ground water depletion threat, expert say that in next 35-40 years the problem is going to worsen. The data reveals that over exploited regions have increased from 4% to 15 % in a short span (1994- 2005). Irrigation has been a major client for groundwater and is expected that demand would increase to 813 BCM in 2010, and further to 1,093 in 2025 and by 2050 it would be around 1,123 ( source ). Saline water has been reported to creped in Delhi making the water unfit for drinking. Water level has gone down drastically in such states as Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh in the northern region, Gujarat, Daman and Diu in the west and Andhra and Tamil Nadu in the south. These data clearly shows that water level in India could be a serious problem in times to come.
The global ground water crisis is similar and is some cases even worse.In west Asia over 90 per cent of the region’s population is experiencing severe water stress( defined as areas where water consumption is more than 10 percent of renewable freshwater resources ). Projections are made that by 2032 nearly half of world would be in water crisis. World Watch Institute estimates that every minute, 1.1 million liters (300,000 gallons) of raw sewage are dumped into the Ganges River, the primary source of water for many Indians. About 80 % water in Asia, 14 % in Latin America is treated, sewage is not universally treated, according to UNEP. In big cities about 40 % water is being lost due to poor systems.
Story does not ends here, scarcity of water is just one side of the coin, the other side is huge demands for power supply. With water level going down the pump installed would require more power to get the ground water, this would futher cause pollution to increase. As a major source of power is thermal energy, this will further worsen the situation. African countries where women need to walk kilometers to collect water, cannot give proper attention to their children. Clearly the ground water concern is not much in hot discussions. Like global warming, ground water depletion is clearly a serious threat us.
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