Water is an essential ingredient of all kinds of life. Earth is a unique living planet because it has water. There is not enough to drink and many towns, cities and villages often face acute shortage of water. To alleviate the drinking water situation a mission was started in 1986 but many of the schemes under the project remain non-functional and thousands of localities use contaminated water.

Maintenance and operation of water mission is a main problem to be solved. Another major problem to be tackled is water harvesting. India is one of the wettest countries of the world but the water harvesting is very poor. Experts say that traditional and local water harvesting system should be revived and encouraged as in that lies the water wisdom. Water is one of the essential ingredients of life. Water is life and without water there cannot be life at all.

Earth is the only living planet because there is water. The other planets like Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn etc. are dead, deserted and lifeless because they lack water in any form. The moon is also a dead piece of land only because there is no life-supporting water. Presence of water means also the presence of other ingredients of life.

The totals replenish able, ground water resources in the country have been estimated at 45.22 m.ha per year. Of this 6.94 m. ha is for drinking, industrial and other uses leaving 38.28 m.ha for irrigation. Water is essential for all kinds of life-men, animals and plants. Water exists either in the atmosphere in the gaseous form or on the earth in liquid and ice-form. We depend for our needs of water upon a very small percentage of less than one per cent water stock found in rivers, fresh water lakes and in the subsoil.

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This source of water is replenished by the very meager stock of 0.01 per cent mobile water found in the atmosphere in gaseous and vapour-form. Much of it falls on the ground as rains. Thus, the cycle of evaporation and precipitation goes on and on. Oceans and lakes are full of abundant water but we cannot use it directly because it is highly brackish and full of impurities. There is often scarcity of drinking water.

There are droughts and famines causing untold misery, death and destruction. Today there are thousands of villages and towns facing an acute drinking water- shortage. Even in cities with huge water-supply plants there is not sufficient water and their supply is often limited to a very short period of the day. With the rapidly increasing pressure of population on our water resources, more and more villages, towns and cities are facing the problem. The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had to launch a drinking water mission and programme in 1986 to meet the drinking water requirements.

Then drinking water was available to only 30 per cent of the country’s population and today theoretically it is available to 91 per cent. But the investigations have shown that a large percentage of drinking water schemes remain non-functional for a very long time of the year and so the safe and potable water is not available to the people. It is estimated that today over 100,000 localities use and drink contaminated and poisoned water with high salinity, arsenic fluoride, iron and other pollutants. Water quality for drinking purposes depends on proper operation and maintenance of water plants, distribution system, hand pumps etc.

The budget allocation for drinking water programme was quite good at Rs. 2,000 crore for the year 1996- 97 over the last year’s Rs. 900 crore, but again operation and maintenance were neglected. The experts say that there is an urgent need for technical expertise and more funds. Funds to the tune of Rs. 20,000 crore are needed to sustain drinking water system in the country for the next 5 years. They opine that communities should be increasingly involved in sustaining the water resources created for them.

The other front where the problem needs to be tackled is rain water harvesting which is very poor in the country. There is more than sufficient precipitation to meet our population’s drinking water demand. The average rainfall the countrywide is estimated to the tune of 1,170 mm. Even if rain water over 3.15 m.ha of land area is harvested it would be enough. India is one of the wettest countries of the world and yet famines, droughts, drinking water crises are galore and more and more localities are finding it difficult to meet their water requirements.

A team of scientists and researchers of Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi has made detailed study of the problem, its dimensions and solutions. They have emphasized the need of traditional wisdom of water harvesting. They have given many details and data and proved how useful it can be to make use of our time- tested, age-old and traditional water harvesting system. These traditional methods of water harvesting have been in constant practice from time immemorial in the country, among various communities and villages.

They evolved highly decentralized system of water harvesting suited to local conditions. We need to return to the same wisdom and revive the old water harvesting system and structure. Heavy showers are not uncommon in the country. It receives rain for about 100 hours each year spread over about 50 days in a year. Cherapunji in India is the wettest place in the world which receives annual rainfall of about 15,000 mm and yet the village often faces drinking water shortage because of widespread deforestation resulting in drying up of water sources soon after torrential rainy season is over.

On the other hand, Jaisalmer in Rajasthan has just about 100 mm of annual rainfall and yet this desert town was able to collect enough water for its use. But it too has started facing the drinking water shortages of late since government water supply system has begun based on tapping of limited ground water neglecting traditional wisdom of water harvesting. These examples show that man should learn to -live in harmony with his environment and learn to respect and harvest wisely water he receives. Man individually and collectively should resort to traditional harvesting systems and harmonize them with our new technologies and knowledge.

We need to increase our efficiency in collecting, storing and distributing rain water which is in abundance. The experts say that during the drought of 1987, one of the worst droughts, the people of the driest areas in Rajasthan had enough water to drink only because they had used traditional local method of kundis. But those regions who had given up their local kundi system for the tap-water faced acute shortage of water and the people were obliged to revive and restore their old and traditional methods to quench their thirst. The problem of over-exploitation and pollution of our water resources is really grave.

According to a UN report two-thirds of mankind will suffer moderate to severe water crisis within next 30 years if remedial steps are not taken. World Bank report estimates 5 million deaths from unsafe drinking water and investments to the tune of $ 600 billion worldwide to repair and improve water delivery system.So this was an essay on crisis of water.