Geography
In your city, critical shortage of water has been reported due to the sharp fall in the groundwater level. What steps you will take to check this scarcity of water?
Water Resources
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Answer
To check this scarcity of water, we need to take quick steps to make proper policies and laws and adopt effective measures for water conservation. This can be done by using rainwater harvesting. It is the process of increasing the recharge of groundwater by capturing and storing rainwater locally in sub-surface water reservoirs.
Various kinds of recharge structures are possible which can ensure that rainwater percolates in the ground instead of draining away from the surface Some of these are:
- Borewells and Dugwells — They are used to raise the underground water table.
- Recharge Pit — They are excavated into the ground lined with a brick or stone wall with openings at regular intervals.
- Percolation Pits — It is a bored hole of up to 30 cm diameter drilled in the ground to a depth of 3 to 10 m.
- Recharge Trenches — They are excavated on the ground and refilled with porous media like pebbles, boulder or brick bats to harvest the surface runoff.
- Permeable Surfaces — For example, a patch of grass is used to retain a large proportion of the rainwater falling on it, yielding only 10-15 per cent as runoff.
- Porous tiles — They can be used on pavements and footpaths.
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Related Questions
Give a geographical reason for each of the following:
(i) Loss of water due to evaporation is highest in tanks.
(ii) Many cities have banned construction of tubewells.
(iii) Rabi crops are grown in areas with irrigation facilities.
Given a choice which modern method of irrigation would you use to irrigate your farm? Give reasons to support your answer.
Nature has endowed India with plentiful water resources. Despite this, acute shortage of water is noticed in some states. What could be the reasons for this shortage?
Our country has a long history of water conservation techniques like (i) Surangam (Kerela): A horizontal well dug in laterite rock until a significant amount of water is struck. This water seeps out of the hard rock. Outside of the Surangam, the water is gathered in an open pit. (ii) Bawaris/Baolis (Rajasthan): A system of layered steps was created around the reservoirs to narrow and deepen the wells, reducing water loss through evaporation harvesting the scanty rainfall received by the region. (iii) Eri/ Ooranis (Tamil Nadu): A tank system that manages floods, minimises soil erosion and runoff during heavy rains. Thus recharging groundwater. (iv) Ahar Pynes (Bihar) are reservoirs with three-sided embankments (Ahar) constructed at the end of man-made diversion channels (Pynes). (v) Zing (Ladakh): Tank used to harvest water from glaciers. As the glacier melts during the day, a network of channels fill up with water. By the afternoon the water in the channels turns into a flowing stream which collects in the tank by evening and is used the next day.
Which one would be suitable for your city? Have you observed any of these traditional systems? If you have, briefly describe it.