Indian Express 25.09.2009
‘Extensive farming lowers water table’
BY 2025, India will be in deep water crisis, said experts at a seminar on water scarcity organised by Universal Rationale Genre of Exponents (URGE) on Thursday.
URGE president S K Gulati said: “We have less than 1 per cent of the fresh water at our disposal, and that, too, is depleting at a fast rate with the increase of population. Rain is the primary source of water, but 75 per cent of the rainfall is reported within less than 120 days in India. As a result, water level is going down by 1 to 3 metres every year.”
He added that 14 per cent of the water was lost in leakage of municipal pipes. Half of the beds in hospitals across the globe are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases.
Dr VK Bhatt, senior scientist at the Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, said while Haryana registered 15 per cent decline in water level, the figure was 16 per cent in Himachal and 20 per cent in Punjab.
Vinod Goyal of National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, IARI, said, “India is supporting 16 per cent of world’s population with just 4 per cent of water.” Claiming that agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of water consumption, he said measures like drip and sprinkle irrigation, channel system and mixed cropping pattern, should be adopted by farmers. He added that drought was primarily an issue of water management. Pesticides and extensive farming were not only damaging the soil quality, but also depleting water resources, Goyal said.
WATER FOOTPRINT
S K Gulati said University of Twente, Netherlands, pointed at the concept of water footprint, the total volume of water required to produce a particular product. “About 1,350 litre water is used to produce 1 kg wheat, while for same quantity of rice 3,000 litres are required. While a cotton shirt has water footprint of 2,000 litres, a leather shoes uses 8,000 litres,” he said. Experts noted that water footprint must be considered before producing any commdity.
