PROTECTION OF WATER
RESOURCES
ST. JOHN’S HIGH SCHOOL
What areWHAT
water
ARE resources?
WATER RESOURCES?
According to Wikipedia.org, water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially
useful. Uses of water include
agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. The majority of
human uses require fresh water.
97 percent of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water;
slightly over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps.
Fresh water is a renewable resource, yet the world's supply of groundwater is steadily
decreasing, with depletion occurring most prominently in Asia and North America.
WATER RESOURCES OF THE WORLD
Freshwater accounts for only 2.5% of the
The world’s water exists naturally in Earth’s
different water, and most of it is frozen in glaciers
forms and locations: in the air, on the and
surface, icecaps. The remaining unfrozen
below the ground, and in the oceans. freshwater is
mainly found as groundwater.
Precipitation – rain, snow, dew etc. –
plays the Glaciers store water as snow and ice,
key role in renewing water resources releasing
and in varying amounts of water into local
defining local climatic conditions and streams
biodiversity. Depending on the local depending on the season. But many are
conditions, shrinking as a result of climate change.
precipitation may feed rivers and
lakes,
River basins are a useful “natural unit” for the Wetlands – including swamps, bogs, marshes,
management of water resources and many of and lagoons – cover 6% of the worlds land
them are shared by more than one country. The surface and play a key role in local ecosystems
largest river basins include the Amazon and They play an important role in preventing floods and
Congo Zaire basins. promoting river flows.
River flows can vary greatly
from one season to the next and from one
climatic region to another. Because lakes store
large amounts of water, they can reduce
seasonal differences in how much water flows
in rivers and streams.
Water Resources of India
India, with a geographical area of about 329 Million Hectares (M.ha), is a land of many mountains and rivers,
some of them figuring amongst the mightiest rivers of the world. Physiographically, India may be divided into
seven well defined regions. These are: the Northern Mountains comprising the mighty Himalayan ranges; the
Great Plains traversed by the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra river systems; the Central Highlands, consisting of
a wide belt of hills running east-west between the Great Plains and the deccan plateau; the Peninsular
Plateaus; the East Coast, a belt of land of about 100-130 km wide, bordering the Bay of Bengal; the West
Coast, a narrow belt of land of about 10-25 km wide, bordering the Arabian Sea; and the islands, comprising
the coral islands of Lakshadweep in Arabian Sea and Andaman and Nicobar group of islands in the Bay of
Bengal.
Rivers of India
India is blessed with many rivers. Land slope determines the
river to which the rain falling on an area will eventually flow. A
river basin, also called catchment area of the river, is the area
from which the rain will flow into that particular river. Following
are the major river basins groups in India.
• Indus system
Important rivers are : Indus and its tributaries like the Jhelum,
Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.
• Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghana system
Important rivers are : Ganga and its tributaries like the
Yamuna, Sone, Gandak, Kosi etc
• Rivers of Rajasthan and Gujrat
Important rivers are : Mahi, Sabarmati, Luni etc.
• East Flowing Peninsular Rivers
Important rivers are : Damodar, Mahanadi,
Brhamanai,Baitrani, Subarnarekha, Krishna,Godavari and
Kaveri.
• West Flowing Peninsular Rivers
Important rivers are : Narmada and Tapi.
• Western Coast Rivers
Important rivers are : Rivers in the Western Coast
THE STATE OF WATER TODAY
• 780 MILLION PEOPLE LACK ACCESS TO AN IMPROVED WATER
SOURCE; APPROXIMATELY ONE IN NINE PEOPLE
• LACK OF ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER KILLS CHILDREN AT A RATE
EQUIVALENT OF A JUMBO JET CRASHING EVERY FOUR HOURS
• MORE THAN 3.4 MILLION PEOPLE DIE EACH YEAR FROM WATER
RELATED CAUSES
• THE WATER CRISIS CLAIMS MORE LIVES THROUGH DISEASE THAN
ANY WAR CLAIMS THROUGH GUNS.
Water Crisis in India
India is facing a fresh water crisis. India has just 4% of the world’s fresh
water — but 16% of the global population.
Employment in manufacturing in India has declined in recent
years and a prime reason is that companies face difficulties
getting clean water.
Half of India’s water supply in Lack of clean water has even gone beyond affecting the
rural areas, where 70% of the health of Indians.
country’s population lives, is
routinely contaminated with toxic Every year, about 600,000 Indian children die of diarrhea
bacteria. or pneumonia, often caused by toxic water or poor hygiene.
IF THIS CONTINUES?
• THE CONSEQUENCES OF
WASTING WATER ARE MANY
AND TROUBLING. HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT DEPENDS ON
WATER. IT IS PREDICTED THAT
IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS,
THERE WILL BE A WORLDWIDE
WATER SHORTAGE. IN THE
NEXT FEW YEARS THE WORLD
POPULATION WILL GROW AND
THERE WILL BE MORE
INDUSTRIES WHICH WILL PUT A
STRAIN ON THE EARTH'S WATER
SUPPLY. THIS WOULD COULD
EVENTUALLY CAUSE DEATH,
DROUGHT, AND HUNDREDS OF
FACTORIES HAVING TO CLOSE
DOWN WHICH WOULD PUT
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE OUT OF
WORK. HOWEVER, THIS IS ONLY
IN THE MOST EXTREME CASE.
GLOBAL EFFORTS TO CONSERVE WATER
The development objectives of the Second Water Conservation Project for China are to improve agriculture water
management and to increase agriculture water productivity in the Project areas. There are four components to the
project. The first component of the project is water works and water-saving facilities. The component improves the
physical conditions and delivery efficiency of the irrigation systems in 24 project counties. The second component of
the project is agricultural water-saving measures and support services. The component provide financial and
technical support to reduce non-beneficial evapo-transpiration (ET), increase the resilience of the farm community to
climate change, and increase farm yield and output value. The third component of the project is management
measures and institutional development. The component is carries out programs to improve agricultural water
management capacity of irrigation management staff and user communities. The fourth component is project
management and implementation support
INDIAN EFFORTS
• Construction of dams
India is country with some of the great rivers like Ganga, Narmada and Brahmputra. These rivers are having some of the big
dams and largest reservoirs in India such as Nanak Sagar and Indira Sagar. Lalitpur district in Uttar Pradesh is well known for
its 7 dams, those are Rajghat dam, Matateela dam, Govindsagar dam, Sehjaad dam, Saajnam dam, Jamini dam and Rohini
dam. Matatila dam is the biggest one form all of them with height of 33.53 meters on Betwa river. These large dams play an
important role for Irrigation and Agriculture growth of the nation, but at the same time it affect the people and environment
and wildlife.
After independence we have made lots of progress in dams and water reservoirs, Now India is one of the world’s most prolific dam-
builders. Around 4300 large dams already constructed and many more in the pipeline, Almost half of which are more than twenty years
old. These dams are major attraction of tourists from all over India. Some facts about the Indian dams are: Tehri dam is the eighth
highest dam in the world. The Idukki dam is the first Indian arch dam build across the Periyar river in Kerala and the largest arch dam in
Asia. The Grand Anicut of Kallanai, located on Holy Cavery River in Tamil Nadu, is the oldest dam in the world. Indira Sagar Dam is
the Largest Reservoir in India followed by other top big and large water reservoirs, These major dams in India with canals and channel
provides an ideal environment for wildlife.
SARDAR SAROVAR DAM NAGARJUNA SAGAR DAM
HIRAKUD DAM BHARKA NAGAL DAM
• Sewage Treatment Plants
In India, there are 234-Sewage Water Treatment plants (STPs). Most of these were developed under various river action
plans (from 1978-79 onwards) and are located in (just 5% of) cities/ towns along the banks of major rivers (CPCB, 2005a).
In class-I cities, oxidation pond or Activated sludge process is the most commonly employed technology, covering 59.5% of
total installed capacity. This is followed by Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket technology, covering 26% of total installed
capacity. Series of Waste Stabilization Ponds technology is also employed in 28% of the plants, though
its combined capacity is only 5.6%. A recent World Bank Report (Shuval et al. 1986)
came out strongly in favour of stabilization ponds as the most suitable wastewater
treatment system in developing countries, where land is often available at reasonable
opportunity cost and skilled labour is in short supply.
• Smart Irrigation
In this proposed system we utilize the solar energy from solar panels to automatically
pump water from bore well directly into a ground level storage tank depending on the
intensity of sunlight. While conventional methods include pumping of water from bore
well into a well and from this well onto field using another pump, our system uses only
a single stage energy consumption wherein the water is pumped into a ground level
tank from which a simple valve mechanism controls the flow of water into the field.
This saves substantial amount of energy and efficient use of renewable energy. A valve
is controlled using intelligent algorithm in which it regulates the flow of water into the
field depending upon the moisture requirement of the land. In this system we use a soil
moisture sensor that detects the amount of moisture present in the soil and depending
upon the requirement of level of moisture content required for the crop the water flow
is regulated thus, conserving the water by avoiding over flooding of crops.
• Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater harvesting is the accumulation and deposition of rainwater for reuse before it reaches the aquifer. Uses
include water for garden, water for livestock, water for irrigation, and indoor heating for houses etc. In many places the
water collected is just redirected to a deep pit with percolation. The harvested water can be used as drinking water as
well as for storage and other purpose like irrigation.
Rainwater harvesting provides an independent water supply during regional water restrictions and in developed
countries is often used to supplement the main supply. It provides water when there is a drought, can help mitigate
flooding of low-lying areas, and reduces demand on wells which may enable ground water levels to be sustained. It also
helps in the availability of potable water as rainwater is substantially free of salinity and other salts.
• New syllabus for all Indian schools which improve
awareness for water conservation
All Indian schools have now included Environmental Education as a subject, this helps promote awareness and general
knowledge of water and it’s conservation.
EFFORTS BY ST. JOHNS HIGH SCHOOL
• IN 2010 ST. JOHNS HIGH SCHOOL STARTED
PROJECT W.H.O.L WHICH WAS ENGINEERED BY
OUR EVS DEPARTMENT
• ST. JOHNS HIGH SCHOOL IN BID TO CONSERVE
WATER REPLACED IT’S ENTIRE PLUMBING AND
SEWAGE SYSTEM WITH IMPROVED VALVES
WHICH SAVED LEAKAGE AND OVERFLOW
• ST. JOHNS HIGH SCHOOL ALSO INSTALLED
SMART SPRINKLERS ACROSS THE SCHOOL
LAWNS AND SPORTS GROUND
