Water, water everywhere! And not a drop to drink!"
Water has emerged as one of the primary environmental concerns for the 21st century. Many parts of the world are currently facing water shortages, while others must contend with severe water pollution. The consequences are bleak: social, economic and political instability leading, in the worst case scenario, to violence over dwindling water resources. Immediate action is needed to stall the emerging crisis and to begin reversing many of the trends we have set over time.
A number of organizations around the world are working towards resolving these issues. It becomes apparent, though, that there are no easy solutions. Since water flows irrespective of political and even cultural borders, cooperation amongst the various stakeholders must become an essential part of the global effort.
What is Sustainable Water Management? The term uses two important concepts with respect to water: sustainability and management. In order to understand Sustainable Water Management, it is important to define these concepts.
Sustainability
Sustainable activities were defined as ones where the needs of the present generation are met without compromising the needs of future generations.
The idea is to allocate the resource in such a way as for all, including the environment, to have an adequate share without making any one group worse off, both now and in the future.
To achieve sustainability, there must be a rethinking of what we consider a basic need. It is common in our society to say that we need a given resource, but how much of it do we really need to use? Also, how do we decide what the basic needs of our ecosystem and the organisms living within it are? Defining what constitutes a basic need is perhaps the greatest challenge to adopting sustainable practices in our daily lives, as interpretations of need vary widely from region to region, village to village and even from person to person.
Management
Information is key to good management. Understanding the needs of the stakeholders, as well as the possibilities and limitations of the resource, is needed to manage it effectively. This requires sharing both indigenous and modern scientific knowledge, as well as establishing a dialogue between individuals and large institutions. With the right information, appropriate strategies can be formulated to deal with the realities of resource management, such as distribution, access, rights, etc.
Needless to say, effective communication necessary to manage a resource shared between various users and governed by different levels. Only once the needs of each user are understood can the resource be allocated and managed in a sustainable manner.
Defining Sustainable Water Management
The purpose of Sustainable Water Management (SWM) is simply to manage our water resources while taking into account the needs of present and future users.
However, SWM is much more than its name implies. It involves a whole new way of looking at how we use our precious water resources. The International Hydrological Programme, a UNESCO initiative, noted: “It is recognised that water problems cannot be solved by quick technical solutions, solutions to water problems require the consideration of cultural, educational, communication and scientific aspects. Given the increasing political recognition of the importance of water, it is in the area of sustainable freshwater management that a major contribution to avoid/solve water-related problems, including future conflicts, can be found.”
Therefore, SWM attempts to deal with water in a holistic fashion, taking into account the various sectors affecting water use, including political, economic, social, technological and environmental considerations.
Sustainable Water Management in India
The statistics show an alarming trend for India: rapid population growth, urbanization and industrialization will lead to a greater demand for an increasingly smaller supply of water resources in the area. How will India avert the looming crisis?
The needs of India, and indeed the South Asian region to which it belongs, are unique. Nowhere else in the world does population growth and poverty play such a large role in affecting water resource issues. It has been said that the next wars will be fought over water. Increasing competition for dwindling water resources will continue to pose a greater threat to national and international security. Already, conflicts have arisen between a numbers of South Asian countries and also between neighboring states within these countries. But, competition for water occurs not only between neighboring countries or states, but also between different user groups within a given watershed. Already, the urban, agricultural and industrial demands for water are greater than the available supplies.
The traditional approach to solving competition issues has been to develop further water supplies with the construction of dams, reservoirs or other engineered structures. However, even this is becoming difficult since the remaining water resources are no longer easily accessible and readily developed at reasonable costs. Therefore, there is a need to optimize the use and distribution of the current supplies to meet the needs of all users. This would include implementing conservation measures such as reduced wastage and leakage, demand regulations, low-flow technologies, wastewater reclamation and reuse, etc.
inadequate data on water resource availability and use has hampered attempts to accurately determine water quantity and quality situation in South Asia. In addition, the lack of a standardized indicator has made it difficult to evaluate performance and to facilitate reporting and data collection. Improvements in both of these areas will assist managers in determining how best to allocate water resources among the different users.
