Understanding The Intensified Crisis for Potable Water
Author: Silvia Ghosh
It’s not that the crisis for water arose out of thin air like a star transforming into a UFO and emerging right out of the clear blue skies, it has been prevailing for over decades now. So, why has water conservation become a hot topic so suddenly? That’s because this invaluable resource isn’t invaluable anymore and all it seeks is the true understanding of its value. Rather than treating water, as an inexhaustible resource, it’s important for us to draw our attention towards its scarce nature and steps must be taken to extract it from its endangerment, otherwise, mankind won’t have the only liquid that ensures its survival.
How can we crown the resource with the respect it deserves?
A study shows that 54% of India already faces high to extremely high water stress and reports predict that by 2050 about 4.8 to 5.7 billion people will reside in regions that will remain water scarce for at least a month around the year, is probably enough of a reality check for us to pull up our socks and take steps towards conserving the lifeblood of this planet.
It is astonishing to note that although the earth is often referred to as the “Blue Planet” as most of its surface is covered with water, this apparently infinite resource is not what it seems to be. Only 1% of this entire commodity holds the power of portability and can be used to work our way through the day-to-day chores. Out of this 1%, about 50% is used up by the industries and most of it is wasted, owing to overlooked leaks, faults and the failure to set a basic benchmark on the quantity of water needed to successfully conduct a process and move to the subsequent ones. It is shocking to know that the wrong estimation of the need for water for a certain industrial process contributes to the most amount of their excessive usage leading to its wastage and this induces over-utilization of the resource. This has almost always been disregarded, but with the growth in arid areas, it has become imperative to take every single drop into account by monitoring and studying about its optimum utility and in turn answering the question as to whether or not it can be recycled.
An upsetting report stated that before the end of the oncoming decade, major cities in the country are going run out of groundwater and that 12% of the population is already living in the “Day Zero” scenario. Also, by the year 2030, speculations state that the water requirement will be double of what it currently is. These numbers only imply the fact that something must be done about it.
This era of water scarcity has awakened our consciousness towards conservation and replacement of our conventional and traditional methods of energy consumption with novel and cleaner ones, like harnessing energy from renewable sources. The advancements in the technological world do not remain far-fetched anymore, they’re at our fingertips and all they demand is responsiveness towards this stimulus called water scarcity. As the famous saying goes, “With great power comes great responsibility”, it is time to take things into our hands as we, the entire human race, are gifted with the power of extracting the magic potion, water, for our utility. We ought to step towards sustainable development, where we leave behind our legacy with adequate resources for our future generations to enjoy a taste of what we once had for ourselves.
A glimpse on the true “Cost of Water” would not only enlighten you but also broaden your horizon to an understanding of how we, at FluxGen, help industries, who are major consumers of water, to become water positive.
