Unit 3 : Natural Resources

Water: Uses and Over-Exploitation of

Surface and Ground Water, Floods,
Drought, Conflicts over Water
(International and Inter-State)
 Of all natural resources, water is the most essential. It is
fundamental to all vital processes of value to mankind.
Water is one of the most important substances that are
needed for plants and animals. It seems abundant at first
sight--almost 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered
with water. Yet perhaps 2 billion people live in areas with
chronic water shortages. Quantitative supply and water
quality problems are mounting and could constrain
economic development and human well-being in general.

 Earth’s oceans contain 97% of the planet’s water, so just

3% is fresh water, water with low concentrations of salts.
Most fresh water is trapped as ice in the vast glaciers and
in polar ice caps.
 Availability of Earth's water
 The remaining 3%
unfrozen fresh water is
found mainly as ground
water, with only a small
fraction present above
ground or in the air.
Fresh water is renewable
resource as it is
97%
circulated or can be
reused due to the
hydrological cycle. Fresh water

Saline water
(oceans)
 Fresh Water Availabilty on Fresh Surface Water
Earth Availabilty on Earth

1% 0% 2%

30% 11%

69% 87%

Surface water
Rivers
Ground water
Swamps
Ice caps and glaciers
Other Lakes
 Surface water is water in a river, lake or fresh
water wetland. Surface water is naturally
replenished by precipitation and naturally lost
through discharge to the oceans, evaporation,
evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge.
 Groundwater is fresh water located in the
subsurface pore space of soil and rocks. It is also
water that is flowing within aquifers below the
water table. Sometimes it is useful to make a
distinction between groundwater that is closely
associated with surface water and deep
groundwater in an aquifer (sometimes called
"fossil water").
 Uses of Water
Hydro-
power
Generation

Domestic Agricultural
Use Use
Use of
Water

Navigation
Industrial
and
Use
Recreation
Use of Water
Water resources are used for agricultural, industrial,
domestic, recreational, and environmental activities.
Majority of the uses require fresh water.
 Agricultural Use: Agriculture accounts for 69
percent of all water consumption basically in
agricultural economies like India. Agriculture,
therefore, is the largest consumer of the Earth’s
available freshwater.
By 2050, the global water demand of agriculture is
estimated to increase by a further 19% due to
irrigational needs. Expanding irrigation needs are
likely to put undue pressure on water storage. It is still
inconclusive whether further expansion of irrigation, as
well as additional water withdrawals from rivers and
groundwater, will be possible in future.
 Industrial Use : Water is the lifeblood of the
industry. It is used as a raw material coolant, a
solvent, a transport agent, and as a source of
energy. Manufacturing industries account for a
considerable share in the total industrial water
consumption. Besides, paper and allied products,
chemicals and primary metals are major industrial
users of water.

Worldwide, the industry accounts for 19 percent of

total consumption. In industrialized countries,
however, industries use more than half of the water
available for human use.
 Domestic Use: It includes drinking, cleaning,
personal hygiene, garden care, cooking, washing of
clothes, dishes, vehicles, etc. Government and
communities have had to start building large water-
supply systems to deliver water to new populations
and industries. Of all water consumption in the
world, domestic use accounts for about 12 percent.

 Use for Hydropower Generation: Hydropower is the

leading renewable source of electricity in the world.
It accounts for about 16 percent of total electricity
generation globally. Today, the leading hydropower
generating countries are China, the US, Brazil,
Canada, India, and Russia.
Use for Navigation and Recreation: Navigable
waterways are defined as watercourses that have
been or may be used for transport of interstate
or foreign commerce. Agricultural and
commercial goods are moved on water on a
large scale in a number of regions in the world.

Water is also used for recreational purposes

such as boating, swimming, and sporting
activities.
 Overutilization of Surface and Ground Water
Water scarcity has become a burning global issue. The UN
estimates that by 2050 there will be an additional 3.5 billion
people with most of the growth in developing countries that
already suffer water stress.
Increase in
Population

Depletion Industrial
of Aquifers Growth

Causes

Expansion
Climate
of Business
Change
Activity

Rapid
Urbanisatio
n
 The rapid increase in population and industrial
growth led to severe demand on water resources.
After using all available surface water resources to
the maximum, human beings began using
groundwater to meet their needs.
 Expansion of business activity: Business activity
ranging from industrialization to services such as
tourism and entertainment continues to expand
rapidly. This expansion requires increased water
services which can lead to more pressure on water
resources and natural ecosystem.
 Rapid urbanization: Urbanization requires
significant investment in water infrastructure in order
to deliver water to individuals and to process the
concentrations of wastewater – both from individuals
and from business.
 Climate change: Climate change could have
significant impacts on water resources around the
world because of the close connections between the
climate and hydrological cycle. Rising temperatures
will increase evaporation and lead to increases in
precipitation, though there will be regional variations
in rainfall. Both droughts and floods may become
more frequent in different regions.
 Depletion of aquifers: Groundwater is the major
source of water in many parts of the world. However,
there has been continuous depletion of this source
due to its overexploitation by rising human
population and the rapid rise in industrialization and
urbanization in modern times.
Consequences of Overutilization:
 Water scarcity now becomes an important topic in international
diplomacy. From village to the United Nations, water scarcity is a
widely-discussed topic in decision making.

 Nearly three billion people in the world suffer from water scarcity.
International, intrastate and regional rivalries on water are not new to
world. The ongoing Jordan River conflict, Nile River conflict, and Aral
Sea conflict are cases in point. The intra-state issues such as Cauvery
Water dispute in South India, 2000 Cochabamba protests in Bolivia is
still a simmering cauldron causing periodic tension at the national and
regional levels.

 According to World Health Organization (WHO) sources, a

combination of rising global population, economic growth and climate
change means that by 2050 five billion (52%) of the world’s projected
9.7 billion people will live in areas where fresh water supply is under
pressure. Researchers expect about 1 billion more people to be living
in areas where water demand exceeds surface-water supply.
Floods & Droughts
 Floods and droughts are two well-known natural hazards in
the world. The former is due to excess in water flow and the
latter is due to scarcity of water.
 Heavy rains lead to rise in the water level of rivers, seas, and
oceans. Water gets accumulated in the coastal areas, which
results in floods. Floods bring in extensive damage to crops,
domestic animals, property and human life. During floods,
many animals get carried away by the force of water and
eventually die.
 On the other hand, droughts set in when a particular region
goes without rain for a long period of time. In the meantime,
the soil will continuously lose groundwater by the process
of evaporation and transpiration. Since this water is not
brought back to earth in the form of rains, the soil becomes
very dry.
 The level of water in the ponds and rivers goes down and in
some cases water bodies get dried up completely. Ground
water becomes scarce and this leads to droughts. In drought
conditions, it is very difficult to get food and fodder for the
survival. Life gets difficult and many animals perish in such
conditions.

 Frequent floods and droughts are mostly due to climate

change and global warming. Various environmental
organizations world over are of the view that climate change
is a long-term change in weather patterns, either in average
weather conditions or in the distribution of extreme weather
events.
 Water and conflicts
 Competition for water has widely increased, and it has
become more difficult to conciliate the necessities for water
supply for human consumption, food production,
ecosystems and other uses. Water administration is frequently
involved in contradictory and complex problems.
Approximately 10% of the worldwide annual runoff is used
for human necessities. Several areas of the world are
flooded, while others have such low precipitations that
human life is almost impossible. As population and
development increase, raising water demand, the possibility
of problems inside a certain country or region increases, as it
happens with others outside the region.
 Major underlying reasons for these conflicts include:
(1)low rainfall, inadequate water supply, and
dependency on one major water source;
(2)high population growth and rapid urbanization;
(3)modernization and industrialization; and
(4)a history of armed combat and poor relations
between countries and among groups
 According to UNESCO, the current interstate conflicts
occur mainly in the Middle East (disputes stemming from
the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers among Turkey, Syria, and
Iraq; and the Jordan River conflict among Israel,
Lebanon, Jordan and the State of Palestine), in Africa
(Nile River-related conflicts among Egypt, Ethiopia, and
Sudan), as well as in Central Asia (the Aral Sea conflict
among Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan
and Kyrgyzstan).
Three Important International Water Conflicts:
• China-India The Brahmaputra River: The Brahmaputra
River is a 2,900 km river that originates in Tibet and
flows through India’s Arunachal Pradesh state before
merging with the Ganges and draining into the Bay of
Bengal in Bangladesh. It is considered an important
resource in all three countries that it flows through: for
energy-hungry China, it provides hydroelectricity; and
for India and Bangladesh, a key agricultural lifeline in
otherwise overpopulated and arid region. The
Brahmaputra River is particularly important to the
agricultural industry in India’s Assam plains, and worries
have arisen recently regarding a series of hydroelectric
plants that China is in various stages of construction on
its Tibetan plateau. Some experts believe that these
projects will reduce the flow of the Brahmaputra in
India, compounding an already tenuous water situation in
the affected areas.
• Ethiopia-Egypt: Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and
the Nile River: In 2011, the Ethiopian government
announced plans to build the ‘Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam’ – a 6,000MW-capacity hydroelectric
dam on the Blue Nile near the border with Sudan. The
dam is meant to capitalize on Ethiopia’s considerable
hydroelectric potential and provide electricity for not just
Ethiopians but regional populations as well. However,
some fear that this dam will trade one problem for another.
And by shoring up its energy supply, Ethiopia might be
jeopardizing its water security by increasing the volatility
of a river that already has a long history of being difficult
to predict. The potential impact on water supplies,
particularly downriver, is a grave concern in Egypt;
which, unlike neighboring Sudan, has consistently
opposed the construction of the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam from the start.
• Turkey-Iraq: Ilisu Dam and the Tigris River: The Ilisu
Dam is the most recent in a long line of Turkish projects
meant to tap into the hydroelectric potential of both the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and once completed the
Ilisu Dam will generate 1,200 MW, or roughly 2% of
Turkey’s energy needs. The big loser in Turkey’s
upstream activities is Iraq and, to a lesser degree,
Syria. Iraq has historically enjoyed the lion’s share of
these rivers’ waters, which have historically supplied
the seasonal marshlands needed to grow food. But
these waters have been receding over the past decade,
even well before the Ilisu Dam’s completion. In fact,
northern Iraq and Syria are currently experiencing
droughts. Some of the more extreme projections hold
that, owing to a combination of climate change and
upstream dam activity, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
won’t have sufficient flow to reach the sea by as early as
2040.
Major Inter-State Water disputes in India
The major Inter-State water disputes according to the report of the
Ministry of Water Resources (Government of India) are discussed below:

1. Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal

States concerned: Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Madhya

Pradesh & Odisha

Date of constitution: April, 1969

2. Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal –I

States concerned: Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka

Date of constitution: April, 1969

3. Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal
States concerned: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and
Maharashtra
Date of constitution: October, 1969
4. Ravi & Beas Water Tribunal
States concerned: Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan
Date of constitution: April, 1986
5. Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal
States concerned: Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry
Date of constitution: June, 1990
6. Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal –II
States concerned: Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and
Maharashtra
Date of constitution: April, 2004
Important International Water treaties of India

• Indus Water Treaty: The treaty was signed in Karachi on

19th September, 1960. Treaty envisages the sharing of
water of Indus and its tributaries between India and
Pakistan. According to the treaty, Beas, Ravi and Sutlej
are to be governed by India, while, Indus, Chenab and
Jhelum are to be taken care by Pakistan. This treaty
also envisages that India can use only 20% of the total
discharge of the Indus River System.
• India-Bangladesh Treaty: The treaty for sharing water of
Ganga at Farakka on 12 December 1996.

• India-Nepal Treaty: Nepal-India Joint Committee on Water

Resources (JCWR) was formed. A treaty on Integrated
development of Mahakali was signed in 1996.
Pancheshwar Multi-Purpose Project on river Mahakali
was centre piece of Mahakali Treaty.

• India-China Cooperation: A Memorandum of

Understanding (MOU) was signed between India and China
to share hydrological information such as rainfall, water
level on Brahmaputra River.
 PREVENTING CONFLICTS OVER WATER
Several possible approaches can prevent conflicts over water.
One set of approaches consists of measures to increase the
availability of water, including
 reducing use of water, such as by decreasing wasteful uses
and increasing efficient uses;
 increasing availability of clean water, such as by reducing
industrial pollution and sewage contamination of water,
improving sewage and wastewater treatment, and
improving watershed management
 establishing and maintaining new groundwater wells;
 designing and implementing improved methods of
desalinization; and
 expanding use of grey water (wastewater from domestic
activities that can be recycled for some uses), as has been
done extensively in Singapore and Israel.
Another set of approaches aims to resolve conflicts over water
before they boil over—that is, before they become violent or
have other serious consequences. Such preventive measures
include
 laws and regulations at the local, state or provincial,
national, or international level;
 proactive cooperation among nations or among states or
provinces within nations; and
 mediation and arbitration. Internationally, there have been
more than 3800 unilateral, bilateral, or multilateral
declarations or conventions concerning water, including 286
treaties.
 In addition, throughout the world there have been numerous
laws and regulations concerning water use at the local,
state or provincial, and national levels. Much needs to be
done to strengthen the enforcement of existing laws and
regulations and to develop new ones to address current
issues.