Let’s protect our freshwater resources

Freshwater accounts for only about 3% of the Earth’s water. Nearly 69% of fresh water is frozen in glaciers and ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is mainly found as groundwater (30%), while all lakes, rivers and swamps combined only account for a small fraction (0.3%) of the Earth’s total freshwater reserves.

Today our invaluable water resources face a host of serious threats due to both natural forces and huge pressure build-up by human activities. Pressures on water resources are increasing mainly as a result of human activities such as urbanization, population growth, increased living standards, growing competition for water, and pollution.

For the human activities, inadequately managed farming, forest-clearing, roadbuilding, and mining activities can lead to too much soil and suspended particles ending up in rivers (sedimentation) which harms aquatic ecosystems and the water quality. ‘Pollution’ is another leading factor that could disrupt aquatic ecosystem dynamics and water quality. Major pollutants include organic matter and disease causing organisms from waste water discharges, fertilizers and pesticides running off from agricultural lands, acid rain resulting from air pollution, and heavy metals released by mining and industrial activities,etc.

Also, extracting too much water from surface waters and groundwater have dramatic impacts on managing global water demand. In recent decades, much more water has been extracted from underground sources. The benefits of withdraw- ing groundwater are often short-lived, while the negative consequences lower water levels and depleted resources, for example can last a long time.

Human induced pressure on water resources is apparently exaggerated by climate change and variations in natural conditions. Particularly, the areas already suffering from water shortages are seriously affected by global warming. Land and mountain glaciers are shrinking more rapidly in recent years. Extreme weather events stemming from global warming, such as storms and floods, are likely to become more frequent and severe.

Under these circumstances, we will unable to meet the growing demand for fresh water if proper water management criteria is not applied. We have to pay much attention on sustainable water resource management. In this regard our efforts should includes all the policies, strategies and activities for the sustainable management of the natural resource-fresh water, to protect the water environment, and to meet the current and future human demand.

Sustainable water resource management plan should ensure availability of water for future generations where the withdrawal of freshwater from an ecosystem does not exceed its natural replacement rate. In addition it should focus energy conservation as water pumping, delivery and waste-water treatment facilities consume a significant amount of energy. In some regions of the world over 15% of total electricity consumption is devoted to water management! Further, our sustainable water management plan has to consider habitat conservation where minimizing human water use helps to pre- serve freshwater habitats for local wildlife as well as water quality.

A major strategy in sustainable water resource management is rain water harvesting. Digging ponds, lakes, canals, expanding the water reservoir, and installing rain water catching ducts and filtration systems on homes are different methods of harvesting rain water. Harvested and filtered rain water could be used for toilets, home gardening, lawn irrigation, and small scale agriculture.

Protecting groundwater resources is another key plan of action in water conservation. When precipitation occurs, some infiltrates the soil and goes underground.Water in this saturation zone is called groundwater. Contamination of groundwater causes the groundwater water supply to not be able to be used as resource of fresh drinking water and the natural regeneration of contaminated groundwater can takes years to replenish. Some examples of potential sources of groundwater contamination include storage tanks, septic systems, uncontrolled hazardous waste, landfills, atmospheric contaminants, chemicals, and road salts. Contamination of groundwater decreases the replenishment of available freshwater so taking preventative measures by protecting groundwater resources form contamination is an important aspect of water conservation.

An additional strategy to water conservation is practicing sustainable methods of utilizing groundwater resources. Groundwater flows due to gravity and eventually discharges into streams. Excess pumping of groundwater leads to a decrease in groundwater levels and if continued it can exhaust the resource. Ground and surface waters are connected and overuse of groundwater can reduce and, in extreme examples, diminish the water supply of lakes, rivers, and streams. In coastal regions, over pumping groundwater can increase saltwater intrusion which results in the contamination of groundwater water supply. Sustainable use of groundwater is essential in water conservation.

‘Water Reuse’ is a timely water resources management strategy. Water shortage has become an increasingly difficult problem to manage. More than 40% of the world’s population live in a region where the demand for water exceeds its supply. The imbalance between supply and demand, along with persisting issues such as climate change and exponential population growth, has made water reuse a necessary method for conserving water.

Another approach to water resources management is communication and education outreach of different water programs. Developing communication that educates science to land managers, policy makers, farmers, and the general public is another important strategy utilized in water conservation. Communication of the science of how water systems work is an important aspect when creating a management plan to conserve that system and is often used for ensuring the right management plan to be put into action.