Our Ecosystems : Water

The Earth is the only planet that is suitable for life in this universe. Life exists because of its interaction with the resources the earth provides. It is this interaction that creates a balance between the living and the non-living resources and sustains both of them. The three most important resources for us is the water we drink, the soil or land we live on and the air we breathe. Without these three resources, we cannot exist.

When pure, it is odorless and tasteless. It is the only substance that is found naturally in all three states. It's in your body, the food you eat and the beverages you drink. You use it to clean yourself, your clothes, your dishes, your car and everything else around you. Many of the products that you use every day either contain it or were manufactured using it. All forms of life need it and if they don't get enough of it, they die. Political disputes have centered around it. In some places, it's treasured and incredibly difficult to get. In others, it's incredibly easy to get and then wasted. It is an essential element to life on Earth. Our Blue planet's most of the surface is covered with lots of it.

Water... We have plenty of it. What if I tell you that we have limited water on our planet like petroleum. I shall thought to be a nut. But the fact is, Earth has less water than you think!

More than 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water. Remaining is categorized as fresh water; about 70% of which is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air.

If you were to take all of the water on Earth - all of the fresh water, sea water, ground water, water vapour and water inside our bodies.. take all of it and somehow collect it into a single, giant sphere of liquid, how big do you think it would be?

According to the US Geological Survey, it would make a ball 1,400 km in diameter. That’s it. And this takes into consideration all the Earth’s water… even the stuff humans can’t drink or directly access, like salt water, water vapour in the atmosphere and the water locked up in the ice caps. If you were to take into consideration only the fresh water on Earth which accessible to humans, you’d get a much smaller sphere of about 56 km across..!

So there is small fraction of water, and we need water for almost everything we do. Agricultural, industrial, household, recreational, environmental activities etc...virtually all of these human uses require fresh water.

Thanks to rain, fresh water is a renewable resource. Yet the world's supply of clean, fresh water is steadily decreasing. Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world and as the world population continues to rise, so does the water demand too.

Day-by-day demand keeps growing, further draining water sources, from great rivers to underground aquifers. We are going deeper & deeper into soil for groundwater, and that has very significant impacts for global water security. Groundwater resources have been heavily over-used worldwide. The rate of groundwater depletion has doubled in last 4 decades. Still we are pumping many of the aquifers out faster than they are recharged. Somehow, we need to bring withdrawals into balance with recharge.

Summer comes to India every year. Along with it comes water crisis. As our rivers start running dry a way before summer, Water is becoming a cause for social conflicts. Recently you might have noticed a survey in newspaper & media showing global water shortages that will be particularly felt in India and China. Rainfall patterns altered by climate change and worsened by inequity in the water distribution system has led to a water crisis in the Central India and many other parts. The poorest areas are being affected the most because of inequitable water distribution. If this isn't a wake-up call of what water scarcity can do to a society, may God bless us!

Is there any solution for these Water Wars..?

Rain, of course!

Water in rivers, lakes, ponds and wells, underground water, tap water & even bottled water..The source of all water is Rain.

Let us apply this understanding: in order to meet demand, then, what we actually need to do is harvest the rain. In India the monsoon is brief. We get about 100 hours of rain in a year. It is this 100-hour bounty that must be caught, stored and used over the 8,760 hours that make up a year.

But..

In urban areas, the construction of houses, societies, footpaths and roads has left very little exposed earth for water to seep in. In parts of the rural areas of India, floodwater quickly flows to the rivers, which then dry up soon after the rains stop. Furthermore, floodwater also cause erosion.

How to harvest Rain???

We have to catch water where it falls.

In the forests, water seeps gently into the ground due to roots of the trees. This groundwater in turn feeds wells, lakes, and rivers. Protecting forests means protecting water catchments. In ancient India, people believed (and the modern science has proved) that forests are the 'mothers' of rivers and must be worshipped the sources of these water bodies. Flora also prevent floods.

Planting of trees, grass and bushes breaks the force of rain and helps rainwater penetrate the soil. It slows down run-off and minimizes evaporation losses. Shelter belts of trees and bushes along the edge of agricultural fields can help water seep into the ground and recharge the groundwater supply. They also slow down the wind speed and reduce evaporation and erosion.

Implementation of Urban rain water harvesting systems has proved to be effective in recharging the aquifers. The CSE Water Campaign, when it looks into the future, sees only hope. From rain will come local food security. From rain will come biomass-wealth that will eradicate ecological poverty. From rain will come social harmony..!

Water is a precious resource, not a commodity. But we need to understand that every drop is important or someday, we will be forced to pay heavily for it...

World Environment Day!

One more Environment Day has gone. Few more events of tree plantation, some award functions for working for environment and few speeches by influential people about our degrading environment..that's it! So we have done our bit for nature and till next 5th June, we need not worry about our environment. This is all what the Environment Day mean to us. But actually, there is much more beyond that..!

Let us try something different this time... Go and trail round your neighborhood garden or forest and explore. This is the best time to see trees, loaded with fruits or pods; like Mango, Neem, Java Plum, Indian Coral tree, Mahua etc. Identify and collect seeds from the many different trees that grow naturally in your area. You may plant few seeds. You may even stock up them for the next year.

Planting a tree seed is the smallest thing but possibly the grandest gesture you can do today..! It can be a pip from a Golden Apple, a samara from an Indian Rosewood or a winged seed from Drumstick tree. Monsoon is all set to arrive. The rain brings new life..especially for trees. This season, seeds are eager to sprout, dreaming to become a tree and trees tend to grow at higher speed.

All you have to do is make sure they are the seeds of trees that found naturally or native to the place in which you live. Your one single action gains significance as it grows.

Just remember and make sure that you plant it where it won't be causing problem for anyone in future. After all, in a few years we don't want someone cutting down what you have so carefully sown all those years ago. Planting near your home, on a private land or alongside of the roads might be fair enough.

Doing small things can achieve big things. The very seed you planted in the soil is proof of that. A living example of how from small things even greater things emerge and grow..! :)

Each one of us has a place and a role to play in the incredible web of life and each one of us can make a difference.

Let this be the idea, the thought, perhaps the hope that you can do something for environment..and for ourselves. That you can help to maintain our ecosystem. An ecosystem is not made up only of living components like animals, plants, microbes etc, but also of non-living components like water, soil, sun-light, atmosphere etc; respectively known as Biotic and Abiotic components. Our next few posts will be dedicated to understanding the inter-relation of these abiotic factors with the biotic ones. It will be one more step to know the ecosystem we live in, better.

We TWO!

In the soaring heat of May, we are experiencing a cool breeze. How? Yes, here are we again..celebrating Gifting Trees...'s second anniversary.

Marking the two years of Gifting Trees, we are adding a new segment in conserving native trees... Tree Rescue!

This is the status of our sacred native trees, isn't it? WE all, educated illiterates (पढ़ेलिखे गवार, साक्षर अनाडी) are busy in widening our highways, we are moving to big cities. And so we are cutting these trees which were planted by our forefathers. But we can't see the importance of our sacred native trees. May be hence we are habituated to plant introduced trees. But Mother Nature haven't..! She knows what's right and what's wrong. She keeps trying to plant these sacred trees with the help of birds.

But do we allow to grow trees on our walls or midway on the roads? No, we cut them. But there is another way to have these blessings of Mother Nature. We just have to transplant these saplings to a right place where the sapling can take roots freely and flourish. For example, Banyan, Peepal, Cluster Figs are species which can be seen growing on walls, buildings. Eventually either the growing saplings die due to lack of water/space or are cut/removed by humans for obvious reason. What we can do is just to transplant them carefully alongside of roads, near residential area or near a temple.

Similarly at the end of summer or just in the beginning of rains, trees like Neem, Jamun, Pongam, Ber etc have numerous seedlings grown beneath them due to their fallen fruits/seeds. Practically, it is very difficult to survive & grow under a big tree and its not advisable to just let these seedlings grow, especially in urban areas. These seedlings can easily be transferred to polybags to grow and then can be used for plantation.

We two, my father and me, have rescued about 45 saplings/seedlings till date and successfully planted few of them too! Also as today is our 2nd anniversary, we are pleased to announce that in this last year, we have planted (and grown) 18 saplings and taken care of them along with those of the previously planted.

5th May also is the Climate Impacts Day. Is that a co-incidence?! Lets Come together and Connect the dots.