The 70 percent of earth’s surface is covered by oceans, as 3 percent of fresh water and ¾ as frozen. The world is facing water shortage and other water resource problems. There is need of water resource management to reduce the water resource problems.
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The main approaches of water resources management are:
- Increase the usable supply.
- Decrease the unnecessary loss of water.
For this the following steps are to be taken:
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Dams and Reservoir:
Rain water and water from show can be captures by dams and reservoirs for use during dry seasons. Dams also control the flow and reduce the danger of flooding, provide irrigation and generate relatively cheap electricity.
Water Diversion:
In many developed countries fresh water has been diverted from water rich areas with scarcity of water in order to meet the water crisis.
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Tapping Ground Water:
When surface 3 tersupplies are insufficient the water can be trapped from the ground water. Any underground geological formation that contains enough ground water to supply human needs is called an aquifer. However, the increased use of ground water gives rise to several problems like –
- Depletion when ground water is withdrawn faster than it is recharged by precipitation.
- Subsidence or sinking of the ground as the ground water is withdrawn.
- Salt water is withdrawn faster than it is recharged.
- Ground water is contaminated by human activities.
Desalination:
Saline wastes are salty to drink and if used irrigation will damage the soil. In Coastal cities with a fresh water crisis, desalination may be made to solve the crisis. The process of removing dissolved salt from water is called desalinated and is clone through distillation and osodis.
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Cloud Seeding:
Cloud seeding involves finding a large suitable cloud and injecting it with a powder such as silver iodide from a plane. The chemical; particles serve as nuclei of condensation. Causing, small water droplets in the cloud to coalesce and, from droplets or the precipitation enough to fall on earth as precipitation.
(6) Wasting Lees Water: Reducing waste offers much more potential for conserving water. Only a little over third of the water used in irrigation actually helps in crop growth, the rest is wasted. Improving the flow of irrigation channels can end wastage. Modem techniques of farming reduce the water use and water loss due to evaporation by using deep irrigation. In which water reaches the plant roots by way of pipe along the ground.
Reuse of water:
- Inadvertent Reuse: The water is withdrawn from the river used treated and discharged to river.
- Indirect Water Reuse: It is a planned endeavor through waste water reclamation cycle.
- Direct Water Reuse: It refers to treated water that id piped directly to the next user, i.e. for industrial or agriculture activities.