Methods to control water scarcity

We need to create awareness among people about saving water and to use it for valid purpose only. Although a large amount art of earth is covered with water, fresh water is very less and to convert sea water into fresh water is a very expensive method. Water harvesting methods can be adopted by people to maintain the water table and to conserve water for future generations. Afforestation should be done so as to plant more and more trees which can cause rain. V need to avoid inefficient waste of water in agriculture field and need to adopt new technology of water conservation process.

Soft measures (1) Productivity of agricultural water can be improved by using better cultivars and nutrient applicants. This can help reduce the fraction of people living in areas facing water stress by 2 per cent by 2050. Water stress is defined as a scenario “where more than 40 per cent of the available water from rivers is unavailable because it is already being used”. (2) Irrigation efficiency can be improved by switching from flood irrigation to sprinklers or drips. However, this measure can result in soil salinisation, warns the study. (3) Domestic and industrial water use can be reduced by cutting leakage in distribution and by improving water recycling facilities (4) Keeping world population below 8.5 billion by 2050 though tax incentives and family planning can reduce the demand for water. But current trends indicate that this measure could be difficult to implement, says that study. Hard measures (5) Increasing storage in reservoirs by enlarging the capacity of existing reservoirs, by making new reservoirs and by reducing sedimentation. This strategy would require an additional 600 cubic km of additional capacity and could have “negative ecological and social impacts” (6) Increasing the capacity or numbers of desalination plants can help in countering the problem in coastal areas. A 50-fold increase is needed to have an impact. This would require significant investments and will have energy costs. Also, waste water discharged will need to be disposed of safely.