Alarming news from NASA: Groundwater basin under India Pakistan sinking rapidly.

[Agent Smith]

man what we can do to avoid it ?

rainwater harvesting, conserve nature and natural resources and kick out companies like cocacola.

 

[nair]

I guess rainwater harvesting is the only solution.... If the govt's take a stern stand and implement it, it is possible..... Creating awareness is also another way.....

I dono how much trouble our next generation is going to face......

 

[Gufi]

The first step is to stop wasting water on a personal basis. This is some how least concentrated on.

• Broken pipes, leaking facets,
• over indulgent use of water for washing cars
• watering lawns which are mostly planted with exotic plants which are not meant for the region.
• Excessive use of water in hour long showers
• Washing drive ways with flowing water rather then mops

The problem is there is an expectation for the Government to manage every single part of the conservation cycle but we ignore our responsibility.
For example A slow leak of 10 drips per minute wastes:
Daily waste in gallons: 1.44
Monthly (30 days) waste in gallons: 43.2
Yearly waste in gallons: 525.6 or 1989.6 litres...
Now add any leaky facet in your home, school, mosque, hospital etc and imagine the water that can be saved if these facets were repaired.
The same goes for excessive water used in washing cars or motor cycles with open pipes and washing car with a hose will waste 75 litres per 5 minutes. Now imagine even if you manage to clean your car in 5 minutes( which is hard) and wash your car once a week that adds up to 4200 litres of water in a year. A simple bucket of water with 15 litres can also suffice to clean the car saving 3360 litres of water
Showers take about 12 litres per minute and if you spend 20 daily showering it will add up to 240 litres a day and 87600 litres in a year. Reducing the time to 10 minutes saves 43800 litres in a year.

That is what you can do if you take care of yourself and your surrounding, and in our heavily populated region a simple reduction of shower time and caring about things like leaks, washing cars etc can have huge savings of water.

Country wide steps
As a country which bases itself on agriculture and has a large population water is an essential commodity that needs to be conserved and stored.
here I would like to use extracts of a report on how professionals see this issue

@Slav Defence worth reading I think, the above facts on personal change especially I used water calculators to describe how little changes can help conserve water

I guess rainwater harvesting is the only solution.... If the govt's take a stern stand and implement it, it is possible..... Creating awareness is also another way.....

rainwater harvesting, conserve nature and natural resources and kick out companies like cocacola.

These smaller dams can be built regardless of the large ones. These will only enhance the ecology of the area.

@jhungary water conservation

 

[WAJsal]

The first step is to stop wasting water on a personal basis. This is some how least concentrated on.

• Broken pipes, leaking facets,
• over indulgent use of water for washing cars
• watering lawns which are mostly planted with exotic plants which are not meant for the region.
• Excessive use of water in hour long showers
• Washing drive ways with flowing water rather then mops

The problem is there is an expectation for the Government to manage every single part of the conservation cycle but we ignore our responsibility.
For example A slow leak of 10 drips per minute wastes:
Daily waste in gallons: 1.44
Monthly (30 days) waste in gallons: 43.2
Yearly waste in gallons: 525.6 or 1989.6 litres...
Now add any leaky facet in your home, school, mosque, hospital etc and imagine the water that can be saved if these facets were repaired.
The same goes for excessive water used in washing cars or motor cycles with open pipes and washing car with a hose will waste 75 litres per 5 minutes. Now imagine even if you manage to clean your car in 5 minutes( which is hard) and wash your car once a week that adds up to 4200 litres of water in a year. A simple bucket of water with 15 litres can also suffice to clean the car saving 3360 litres of water
Showers take about 12 litres per minute and if you spend 20 daily showering it will add up to 240 litres a day and 87600 litres in a year. Reducing the time to 10 minutes saves 43800 litres in a year.

That is what you can do if you take care of yourself and your surrounding, and in our heavily populated region a simple reduction of shower time and caring about things like leaks, washing cars etc can have huge savings of water.

Country wide steps
As a country which bases itself on agriculture and has a large population water is an essential commodity that needs to be conserved and stored.
here I would like to use extracts of a report on how professionals see this issue
View attachment 242873View attachment 242874 View attachment 242875
@Slav Defence worth reading I think, the above facts on personal change especially I used water calculators to describe how little changes can help conserve water

I read an article on how much water is wasted in airports, just through water bottles, really alarming. Overall very informative post, indeed. Thank you for the information. We take everything for granted. Much can be done to save a lot of water. Just watching all that water wasted in Northern areas is really a sad sight to see. Clean water*

 

[vsdave2302]

man what we can do to avoid it ?

The only state where Water table upped is Gujarat.

Gujarat CM’s vision in water management yields outstanding results

Social Cause -- Committed to social thought and action

A green rising : STATES - India Today

 

[Echo_419]

The only state where Water table upped is Gujarat.

Gujarat CM’s vision in water management yields outstanding results

Social Cause -- Committed to social thought and action

A green rising : STATES - India Today

Drought is better than communal water

I guess rainwater harvesting is the only solution.... If the govt's take a stern stand and implement it, it is possible..... Creating awareness is also another way.....

I dono how much trouble our next generation is going to face......

+ desalination of sea water

 

[kadamba-warrior]

Drought is better than communal water

So true! We are those species who would suck up even the droughts silently if it comes from the likes of corrupt but secular Lalu than water from communal Modi! And effing G*d knows Modi is only neutral at best when it comes to religions.

Modi's efforts in Gujarat watershed management really need to be replicated all across India if we are to have a chance in hell to quench the thirst of future generations of Indians! Let alone hunger!

Not many of us realize it, but India is in a far worse situation than Pakistan when it comes to water scarcity due to various factors unique to India. Not least of which is our oversized population!

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

We had another FLOOD ... basin is full which is why it floods upward

 

[Shah01]

The first step is to stop wasting water on a personal basis. This is some how least concentrated on.

• Broken pipes, leaking facets,
• over indulgent use of water for washing cars
• watering lawns which are mostly planted with exotic plants which are not meant for the region.
• Excessive use of water in hour long showers
• Washing drive ways with flowing water rather then mops

Yes that would be best strategy. For example take one shower a day and maybe no more than 10 mins. Don't keep the water running while brushing teeth! Washing cars can be a monthly exercise rather than a weekly. This alone would save a lot of water.
Did a bit of number crunching and if everyone takes a shower every day for 10 mins then we would need about 7.1 maf (million acre feet) of water just for showering (based on 200 million people)!! I have not included any other requirements i.e. flushing, drinking, washing and watering lawns etc. So imagine how much water will be needed if all the requirements are added hence careful water use would return much needed savings.

That is 8.6 maf of savings. This extra water can be used for irrigation and would save us from pumping it from ground. Saves precious energy.

I have done a bit of analysis on the main crops of Pakistan and the following are my findings:

The above shows at the current rate we will need at least 78.6 maf of water to grow the above crops (plus water losses through the canal system). I think Sugarcane should be replaced with more productive crops. I could not find data for Potato and some other crops. Potato water needs are similar to Rice. So unless we improve the canal system together with the intelligent cropping with modern irrigation system we won't be able to produce enough to feed the growing population.

For more information you can read the following:
Agriculture Statistics Tables | Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
CHAPTER 3: CROP WATER NEEDS

Not many of us realize it, but India is in a far worse situation than Pakistan when it comes to water scarcity due to various factors unique to India. Not least of which is our oversized population!

Maybe but India's population growth is much less than Pakistan.

I have seen the DamNation movie. It is interesting and it makes one think about the ecosystem. One thing you have to understand is that Pakistan has only 2 large reservoirs and the rest are very small and only a few of them.
There are a few sites which are off channel and can be turned into dams so the rivers can flow normally without any obstructions. Rohtas Dam, Akhori Dam and Soan Dam (my favorite). If these off channel dams are built to full capacity, can easily manage any flood in upper Indus, Chenab and Jehlam rivers. There are a couple of sites in Sindh (Bhit dam up to 40 maf of storage) which can be used to store water, these are also off channel so won't affect the river as such.
Furthermore the new dam designs can also deal with sedimentation effectively.

We had another FLOOD ... basin is full which is why it floods upward

The aquifers don't recharge like a water tank in a house i.e. run the pump for an hour and it is recharged. Most of the flood water is drained to the sea. The amount of ground water pumping is done in Pakistan is not sustainable. People need to understand this and start to act now before it is too late (or maybe it is).

 

[VCheng]

The first step is to stop wasting water on a personal basis. This is some how least concentrated on.

• Broken pipes, leaking facets,
• over indulgent use of water for washing cars
• watering lawns which are mostly planted with exotic plants which are not meant for the region.
• Excessive use of water in hour long showers
• Washing drive ways with flowing water rather then mops

The problem is there is an expectation for the Government to manage every single part of the conservation cycle but we ignore our responsibility.
For example A slow leak of 10 drips per minute wastes:
Daily waste in gallons: 1.44
Monthly (30 days) waste in gallons: 43.2
Yearly waste in gallons: 525.6 or 1989.6 litres...
Now add any leaky facet in your home, school, mosque, hospital etc and imagine the water that can be saved if these facets were repaired.

Pakistan's rising population will only increase its water needs tremendously over the next few decades: