Water Crisis– Can you stay without water for a day or more than two days?. No resource is assured one same applies to the water also. The kind of Water situation we are facing as a generation is really dire. Many towns and cities in India will get water supply once in three days i.e they will not have enough water to drink and bathe if we do not take necessary actions now. The water crisis is becoming one of the major global risks. Millions of people’s will die because of the scarcity of drinking water. We are destroying our soil and water at such rate that incoming ten-twelve years this land will turn to a desert, incapable of producing food and holding water in it. Unfortunately, we think of water only when we run out it. Water is a resource and it should be managed. If we the present generation do not take any actions in managing our water resources we are clearly saying that we are not interested in the future of the coming generations and our children’s.

In the past couple of years, there is a gradual depletion of ground water and river water in India. This affects the majority of the population which is directly dependent on groundwater for farming or other use. As only 4% of the water in India comes from glacier the rest 96% is from monsoon. Water Crisis, whatever may be the reason, excess extraction of groundwater or drying up of the rivers, it is having a major impact on the lives of the people in the whole world.

Water is not a commodity. It is the living entity.

River’s are the major lifelines for the livelihood of the peoples in India. Our great ancient civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjodaro were born near the banks of the rivers and got destroyed by the same rivers when they changed their course of flow.

Climate change is also the major issue contributing to the decrease in fresh water. When there is not enough fresh water available for the given population Water Crisis arise.

In tropical countries, the source of water they have in monsoon. So, for India monsoon plays a vital role in supplying freshwater. Monsoon in India comes down for a period of a month or two. This water which comes down during this short span of time has to be preserved or store for the coming whole year. The best way to store this water is to preserve it in soil, which helps in increasing the groundwater levels and eventually leads to rising in the level of water in our rivers, lakes and aquifers. The soil has a deep connection with the river. If the soil gets depleted the river gets depleted. Wherever there is not enough vegetation, the soil turns into sand. Once it turns into the sand it loses its capability to hold water and vegetation there becomes nearly impossible. Our water bodies are depleting and our soil is been degraded.

Studies have shown that if there are approximately 10000 to 12000 trees in an area of about 38 million litres of water will go into the soil. There are alternate cycles of drought and floods occurring in many parts of India. This is because the soil has lost its capability to hold rainwater. It goes off as the rain passes away. After the monsoon season is over again the drought-like situations start occurring as the soil has no moisture left in it which will feed the river and avoid its drying. With more than a billion people, if the rivers of India dry up, what a major issue it will create in the entire nation, it may lead to warlike situations for water within the country itself. Peoples will start migrating from villages to cities in search of water. This enormous migration of people into the cities will make them crowded eventually leading to scarcity of the resources in the cities also. This may start a civil war over water.

Someone said it a long ago :- The Third World War will be fought for Water.

Artificial approaches are taken into use of building dams across the rivers, making a string of ponds. These approaches can be useful in short term but for a permanent solution, the Soil near the rivers should be wet. Wet soil is only possible when there is enough forest cover. With the population of about more than a billion peoples increasing forest cover is a bit of a challenge so the other method is of implementing the traditional knowledge of our farmers in improving the quality of the soil by using Agroforestry.

The government should implement some schemes which will offer profitable solutions to the farmers to encourage agroforestry. If we plant a minimum of one-two lakh trees nurtures them for the next ten years we can bring a major portion of land under green cover. Which will help in stopping soil erosion and will make monsoon regular.

More than 22.1% people’s living in rural India travel upto 1 Km daily to fetch drinking water.

The government should come forward to make some environment-friendly policies.As a large part of our nation is under agricultural land, it is best to shift our farmers from crop-based to tree-based agriculture. As it will help them in increasing their income up to double in the next six to seven years. Mass movement should be encouraged by the government of planting trees individually. Water bodies across the planet should be looked as the treasures of the world.

We need a policy which establishes that where there is government land around water bodies, forests will be created; where there is private land, horticultural crops will be planted.

SADHGURU