Way to overcome water crisis
Israel’s solution for a water-starved world
Let There Be Water By Seth M. Siegel
Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press New York
Pages: 337, Price: Rs. 599/
One thing is certain that the entire world is facing a problem of scarcity of water. With growing population, the problem is going to be very severe in the near future and if we do not act now, it will remain with us forever. We, in India, have been facing the problem of water scarcity for more than two decades. Though we get good amount of rain water, we lack in the water management. In Maharashtra, for crop like sugarcane, we use tremendous amount of ground water. As a result of over extraction our ground water reservoirs are depleting very fast.
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According to the data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, groundwater is disappearing fast from the world and India is among the worst hit. Two new studies, (published in 2015) led by the University of California – Irvine (UCI), using data from GRACE satellites, among the world’s largest groundwater basins, the Indus Basin aquifer of India and Pakistan, which is a source of fresh water for millions of people, is the second-most overstressed with no natural replenishment to offset usage.
But this is not the case of India and Pakistan only. The entire world, including USA is facing water crisis. California is has been facing sever drought and is hit by the scarcity of water. According to another report, global water withdrawals are projected to increase by 55% through 2050 due to growing demands from manufacturing (400%), thermal electricity generation (140%) and domestic use (130%). The largest proportion of this growth will occur in countries with developing or emerging economies and increasing standards of living, through their greater demand for food, energy and other goods, the production of which can require significant quantities of water.
Roughly 75% of all industrial water withdrawals are used for energy production. Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water worldwide: globally, the rate of groundwater abstraction is increasing by 1-2% per year. There is clear evidence that groundwater supplies are diminishing, with an estimated 20% of the world’s aquifers being over-exploited, some critically so.
This is a frightening scenario and one has to think of the issue of water very seriously. But there are ways to overcome the problem of water scarcity and Seth M. Siegel provides an inspiring story in this regard. He, in his book “Let There Be Water”, narrates how Israel has been managing the water issue.
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In a very lucid language Siegel gives a detailed account of the consistent efforts made by the Israel. He has taken great efforts to provide the information of the country which has desert in the 60 percent of its land. But Israel has not only solved the problem of water but now has more than enough water.
As a result it exports its water to neighbouring countries. It uses water from the sea; it has huge wastewater treatment plants. It has perfect planning of the rain water it gets. The photograph of one of the wastewater treatment plants of Israel’s Shafdan tells us an inspiring story.
It says, “While most major cities have wastewater treatment plants, Israel’s Shafdan is unique.
Aggregating all of the sewage in the greater Tel Aviv area, the Shafdan sewage is treated and then percolated through layers of purifying local sand. The water is then pumped out of a dedicated aquifer and transported to Negev Desert farms via a dedicated pipeline. With 85 percent of Israel’s sewage treated and reused for agriculture, Israel has a major new source of water that complements natural water sources.”
Seth Siegel, through these examples, makes it clear that though water issue is going to be very serious, it can be overcome. In the beginning, he gives tells us about the trends that have been the main drivers of the water crisis. He highlights five major trends that are to be dealt with and they are, Population, Rising middle class, Climate change, Tainted water and leaks. By 2050 the world population is estimated to reach 9.5 billion! From seven billion to 9.5 billion is a huge growth.
How we are going to supply water to the 2.5 billion more people when we are facing water crisis in 2016? The issue is becoming more severed because the population is not just growing but number of middle class people is rising. Siegel says, “There were 1.4 billion middle-class people in the world in 2000. That number grew to more than 1.8 billion in 2009. By 2020, the world’s middle-class population is projected to rise to about 3.25 billion people. That is good news for humanity, but bad news for the global water supply.”
Why it is bad for water supply? He argues that the life style of middle-class people needs more water. Middle-class people overwhelmingly have protein-based diets. Raising a pound of beef uses 17 times more water than it does to from a pound of corn. Changes in the climate, has affected patterns of rain as well.
The interval between rainfalls has been growing as has the intensity when it does fall. When the rain does come, much of it runs to sewers and rivers or sits on the surface before evaporating. In India we have been experiencing this for years together. But it seems this is the experience of the all the countries.
To add to this problem, the water reservoirs are getting polluted and ground water stock is depleting at an alarming rate. But Israel, who has developed a sophisticated approach to water, has done great work in water management. Siegel tells us about the work Israel has been doing very successfully. He tells us the philosophy of water.
And the key factors are 1. The water belongs to the nation. All of the water found in Israel is common property. Siegel quotes Prof. Uri Shani, who says, “Water management is completely centralized. Every pump and borehole, every allocation of water, has to receive a permit. Planning for and allocating every drop of water has been the key to our success.”
