Natural Infrastructure for Water Problems

What is the issue?

• The small-scale bottom-up water conservation movements have only helped locally.
• There is need for non-invasive large-scale schemes to address India’s huge water problems.

What is the looming threat?

• Building artificial infrastructure eventually kills natural infrastructure.
• Forests, rivers, mountains, aquifers and soil are being lost at an alarming rate.
• Notably natural infrastructure is a result of ages of evolution and cannot be engineered in short span.
• India now is in the midst of a suicidal water crisis as urban and rural landscapes go thirsty.

What were the measures?

• Over the years, various stakeholders have been working on bottom-up schemes.
• There have been efforts to revive and rejuvenate lakes, wetlands, streams and other small water bodies.
• These movements have brought about a significant change at the local level.
• But the scale of India's water problems is much larger than these local efforts.

What are the concerns?

• Demand - Cities are now the centres of rising demand for water, food, energy and other resources.
• High densities of cities do not allow for water harvesting to fill the gap.
• Schemes like dams to service these large cities and the huge needs of agriculture have caused extreme ecological devastation.
• Market - Natural resources are living evolutionary resources that are constantly renewed by natural cycles.
• They provide perennial value as long as they are used with natural wisdom.
• But products and services derived from natural infrastructure have often led to terminal loss of the source itself.
• The global free market and the resultant scale of human intervention exceed the scale of the planet.
• So loss of forests, mountains, floodplains and rivers are in most cases long-term loss for short-term gain.

What are the possible sustainable measures?

• River floodplains - Floodplains are formed over millions of years by the flooding of rivers.
• These are formed by deposition of sand on riverbanks and are exceptional aquifers.
• So any withdrawal of water is compensated by gravity flow from a large surrounding area.
• Some floodplains, such as those of Himalayan rivers, contain up to 20 times more water than the virgin flow in rivers in a year.
• This could potentially be conserved and used as a source of providing water to cities, and can be a self-sustaining aquifer.
• E.g. the Delhi Palla floodplain project on the Yamuna
• Piezometers and a control system have been installed.
• These help monitoring water levels and other parameters, to ensure sustainable withdrawal.
• Besides, it provides huge revenue to the Delhi Jal Board.
• Requirement - Preserving the floodplain in a pristine condition is essential for this scheme to work.
• Land on the floodplains can be leased from farmers in return for a fixed income from the water sold to cities.
• The farmers can be encouraged to grow orchards/food forests to secure the ecological balance of the river ecosystem.
• Natural mineral water - Forested hills sit on a treasure of underground aquifers.
• Rains falling on the forest seeps through the various layers of humus and cracked rock pathways.
• In the course, they pick up nutrients and minerals and flows into underground mineral water aquifers.
• The natural mineral water could be a better alternative for the mineral water currently brought from faraway mountain springs.
• The huge pressure that this puts on the mountains could be avoided.
• Water in underground aquifers is comparable to several international natural spring mineral waters.
• With a proper scheme, a forest like Asola Bhatti in Delhi could be sustained as a mineral water sanctuary.
• Likewise Aravalli forested hills can provide mineral water to all major towns of Rajasthan.
• Quality natural mineral water can be provided from a local forest tract for 20 times less than the market price.

What is the way forward?

• These non-invasive, large-scale ‘conserve and use’ projects should become part of the living scheme.
• These schemes can

1. provide perennial supply of water to large populations in cities and towns
2. engage the natural landscape
3. sustain ecological balance
4. have major economic and health benefits

• Unlike large-scale dams, these projects work with nature rather than against it.

Source: The Hindu