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Water Crisis: Quality and Quantity

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• Hydrologic Questions ▫ What determines whether a body of water will be

biologically productive?

▫ When a body of water becomes polluted, how can

we reduce the pollution and its effects?

▫ How does land surfaces manage to keep fresh water balance ?

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Environmental Questions The Hydrologic Cycle

• The transfer of water from oceans to the atmosphere to the land and back to the oceans. ▫ Involves evaporation of water from oceans

▫ Precipitation on land

▫ Evaporation from land

▫ Runoff from streams, rivers and subsurface groundwater

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The Hydrologic Cycle

• Driven by solar energy

• 1.3 billion km3 of water on Earth ▫ 97% in oceans

▫ 2% in glaciers and ice caps

▫ 0.001% in atmosphere

▫ The rest in fresh water on land

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The Hydrologic Cycle

• At the regional and local level, the fundamental unit of the landscape is the drainage basin. ▫ The area that contributes surface runoff to a

particular stream or river

▫ Vary greatly in size

▫ Usually named for main stream or river

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SI+Env. R. I

SI+Env. R. I

SI+Env. R. I

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Human Impacted Urban Hydrology

Evapotranspiration

Runoff

Infiltration

Increase of impervious areas

(roads and roofs)

Increased urban runoff

causes frequent flood

Supply of Water Resources

Freshwater Readily accessible freshwater

Biota

0.0001%

Rivers

0.0001%

Atmospheric

water vapor

0.0001%

Lakes

0.0007%

Soil

moisture

0.0005%

Groundwater

0.592%

Ice caps

and glaciers

0.592%

0.014%

Use of Water Resources

Humans use about 54% of reliable runoff

Agriculture

Industry

Domestic

Power plants

Fig. 15-4 p. 309

United States

Industry 11%

Public 10%

Power

cooling

38%

Agriculture

38%

India’s Water Consuming Sectors

Sector-Wise Water Consumption and Role of Industry [ref]

● Agriculture: 87% ● Industry: 8%

o Thermo-electric 7% of total. i.e. ~88% of industrial use.

● Domestic: 5%

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Water Resources

• Over the last century ▫ Human population has increased 3x

▫ Global water withdrawal has increased 7x

▫ Per capita water withdrawal has increased 4x

▫ About one-sixth of the world’s people don’t have easy access to safe water

▫ Most water resources are owned by governments and are managed as publicly owned resources

Drinking Water Issues:……..

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Water Consumption versus Water Quality

Water, water everywhere, not a single drop to drink

Place of origin … Place of use…Place of disposal

NIMBY: Not In My Backyard

Stakes, dispute and sustainability

…………………………………

………………

Drinking Water Criteria

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Colour

Turbidity

Total Solids (TS)

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)

Total Suspended Solids (TSS)

Odour

Taste /Salinity

…………………………………

Water Quality Information Platform (WQIP)

Water quality standards Drinking water standards

Ambient water quality standards

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Groundwater Pollution

• >70,000 chemicals are used; effects of many are not known

• Each year another 700-800 new chemicals are produced

• 55 million tons of hazardous chemical wastes are produced in the US each year

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Kinds of Water Pollution

• Inorganic Pollutants

• Organic Pollutants

• Biologic Pollutants

Inorganic Pollutants

• 3 groups 1) Produce no health effects until a thr eshold

concentration is exceeded— e.g., NO 3 –ok at ,

50mg/liter; at higher levels: methaemoglobinaemia

2) No thr eshold— e.g .—genotoxic substances: so me

natural and s ynthetic organic compo unds,

microorganic compunds, some pesticides, arsenic

3) Essential to diets: F, I , Se—abs ence ca uses

problems, but too much also causes problems

Inorganic Trace Contaminants

• Mercury—methyl Hg and dimethyl Hg in fish—probably most significant path to humans—Minamata Bay, Japan, 1950’s

• Lead—toxicity has been known for a long time ▫ 1859 book ▫ Tetraethyl lead—anti-knock additive for gas, 1930-

1966

Organic Pollutants

• Three classes of compounds ▫ Pesticides and Herbicides

▫ Materials for common household and industrial use

▫ Materials for industrial use

Pesticides

• Chlorinated hydrocarbons ▫ DDT, heptachlor, etc—2-15 years

• Organophosphates

▫ Malathion, methyl parathion—1-2 weeks

• Carbamates ▫ Carbaryl, maneb, aldicarb—days to weeks

• Pyrethroids

▫ Pemethrin, decamethrin—days to weeks

Herbicides

Contact Triazines—e.g. atrazine, paraquat (interfere with photosynthesis) Systemic—phenoxy compounds, N compounds,

Alar, glyphosate (create excess growth hormones) Soil sterilants trifluralin, dalapon (kill soil microorganisms)

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Advantages of Modern Pesticides • Save human lives (malaria, bubonic plague,

typhoid fever)

• Increase food supplies (even now 55% of world’s potential food supply is ‘lost’ to other species)

• Increase profit for farmers ($1investment $4 increased profit

• They work fast

Disadvantages of Modern

Pesticides

• They accelerate the development of genetic resistance to pesticides by pest organisms

Since 1945, ~1000 species of insects and rodents and 550 species of weeds and plant diseases

• They can put farmers on a financial treadmill • Some kill natural predators and parasites that

control ‘pests’ ▫ 300 most destructive insects in US: 100 were once

minor

• They don’t stay put —only 0.1 to 2% of stuff applied reaches target insect, 5%

reaches target plant—the rest—into air, water, humans, wildlife

Monitoring water quality

• Number of colonies of fecal coliform bacteria

• Bacterial source tracking (BST)

• Measure biological oxygen demand (BOD)

• Chemical analysis

• Indicator species

• Genetic development of indicator organisms

Scale of Biologic Contaminant Problem

• Major cause of infant deaths in third world

• Diarrhea kills 4-15 million children/year

• Bacteria, viruses, parasites

Types, Effects and Sources of Water

Pollution Point sources

Nonpoint sources

Water quality

Fig. 22-3 p. 494

Point and Nonpoint Sources

NONPOINT SOURCES

Urban streets

Suburban

development

Wastewater

treatment plant

Rural homes

Cropland

Factory

Animal feedlot

POINT

SOURCES

Fig. 22-4 p. 494

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Solutions: Preventing and Reducing Surface Water Pollution

Nonpoint Sources Point Sources

Reduce runoff

Buffer zone

vegetation

Reduce soil erosion

Clean Water Act

Water Quality Act

Pollution of Lakes Eutrophication

Fig. 22-7 p. 499

Groundwater Pollution: Causes Low flow rates Few bacteria

Cold temperatures

Coal strip

mine runoff

Pumping

well

Waste lagoon

Accidental

spills

Groundwater

flow

Confined aquifer

Discharge

Leakage from faulty

casing

Hazardous waste injection well

Pesticides

Gasoline station

Buried gasoline

and solvent tank

Sewer

Cesspool

septic tank

De-icing

road salt

Water pumping

well Landfill

Low oxygen

Groundwater Pollution Prevention

Monitor aquifers

Leak detection systems

Strictly regulating hazardous waste disposal

Store hazardous materials above ground

Find less hazardous substitutes

Reducing water pollution

• Non point source

• Septic tanks and sewers

Sewage Treatment

Physical and biological treatment

Fig. 22-16 p. 511

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Advanced (Tertiary) Sewage Treatment

Uses physical and chemical processes

Removes nitrate and phosphate

Expensive

Not widely used

Technological Approach: Using

Wetlands to Treat Sewage

Fig. 22-18 p. 513

Water Resource Management

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Watch Video: The Water Cycle (6.46 min).

Water Cycle

Credit: National Science Foundation, Directorate for Geosciences, Division of Earth Sciences. USA. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al-do-HGuIk 40

India’s Water Availability

● Per capita availability of water is rapidly declining: o Yr. 1951: 5177 m3/yr

o Yr. 2001: 1816 m3/yr

o Yr. 2011: 1588 m3/yr [ref]

● India is now a water-stressed country (<1700 m3/yr per capita)

● 128 mi. lack safe water ● More than 60,000 villages without a

source of drinking water.

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Water-Stressed India

http://www.wri.org/resources/charts-graphs/water-stress-

country

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Each group please give me picture for this slide by tuesday ?

Plz plz plz……..

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Why can’t we build more dams to increase water supply?

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Dammed Rivers--Damned Lives

● Unacceptable socio-environmental impacts [ref]

o Unfavorable benefit:cost ratio

o Large scale displacements of populations; poor

compensation

o Disproportionate share of losses borne by people

who enjoy little benefits.

o Downstream impacts unaccounted.

o Reduced sediment and freshwater discharge to

floodplains, riverine and estuarine ecosystems.

o Severe disruptions in migratory fauna.

● Major people’s agitations

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Why can’t we drill more borewells to increase water supply?

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India’s Groundwater Depletion

● Groundwater o Feeds 50-75% of agriculture

land

o 600 mi. overly depend on it.

[ref]

o >90% of it is used for

agriculture [ref]

o 60% will be critically degraded

in 20 yrs.[ ref]

● Alarming depletion of groundwater o Mean rates: 4 cm/yr [ref]

o Much higher rates locally.

Central Groundwater Board:

http://www.cgwb.gov.in/

http://www.cgwb.gov.in/documen

ts/Dynamic-GW-Resources-46

If water availability is reducing, why not reduce water use?

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Complications: Food Crisis

● >87% water goes for agriculture. o Food for the growing population

o Increased irrigation demands

o >50% food comes from irrigated land (35% of

arable land).

o Yields of rainfed arable land (65% of total arable)

low due to lack of irrigation and land degradation.

o Reducing water use directly conflicts with

food production.

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But India is supposed to be the land of great rivers and lakes.

What has become of them?

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India’s Population [ref]

● 1950: 359.0 mi. ● 2014: 1238.9 mi. ● India has some of the highest population densities

in the world.

India’s Population Growth

Credit: Waldir. Source: http://en .wik ip ed ia.o rg /wik i/Demo grap hic_ history

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India’s Water Pollution

● >70% of India’s surface water resources are polluted by sewage and toxic chemicals [ref]

● Sewage treatment facilities in towns and cities:

o Full facilities in only 8 cities[ref]

o Partial facilities in 209 (6.7%) out of 3,119.

o Over 114 Indian cities dumping untreated sewage and

partially cremated bodies directly into the Ganges. [ref]

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If the water is polluted, we must provide purified drinking water to all ● Purifying heavily polluted water is expensive!

● Contaminants can include, particulates, dissolved (ionic)

impurities, biological contaminants, heavy metals and organic

chemicals.

● The cheaper methods of drinking water treatment are often

inadequate to remove all the above contaminants.

● The more comprehensive and sophisticated methods are

expensive.

● The poorest in the country are hardest-hit by poor water quality.

▫ DRINKING WATER SPECIFICATION: IS: 10500, 1992

▫ WHO Guidelines for drinking-water quality

▫ WHO Guidelines for Recreational, or bathing, waters

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Then let's develop innovative cheap water filters or some other technology to purify water.

● Firstly, purifying heavily polluted water is not cheap.

● Besides, this simplistic approach completely misses the

complexity of the issue.

● Uncontrolled pollution and depletion of water resources

and mismanagement of wastewater are also part of the

problem. The solution should give consideration to all

these aspects.

● It means we must first understand these aspects

adequately...

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Come on! There’s no need to panic...Indians have a tough immune system...our bodies can surely handle a

little water contamination...

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Health Effects of Water Pollution

● Water, sanitation, and hygiene-related deaths: 0.4 mi./yr. (WHO 2007).

● The socio-economic costs of water pollution are

extremely high: 1.5 mi./yr. children ( <5 yrs. ) die due to

water related diseases,

● 200 mi. person-days of work are lost each year in India.

● National loss of INR 366 bi./year due to water related

diseases (Parikh 2004). • http://www.idfc.com/pdf/report/2011/Chp-19-Water-Pollution-in-India-An-Economic-Appraisal.pdf

•

" No single measure would do more to reduce disease and save lives

in the developing world than bringing safe water and adequate

sanitation to all."

- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan

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Ok, fine. How do the infections get into our drinking water anyway?

Through untreated sewage entering water sources

and OPEN DEFECATION

Rain washes it all into our water bodies.

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India’s Sanitation

● No sanitation services for 839 mi.

● Open Defecation

o India: >50% population (638 mi.)

o Bangladesh and Brazil: 7%

o China 4%

[ref] Urban Rural Total

Improved water supply 96% 84% 88%

Improved sanitation 54% 21% 31%

So the solution is simple: simply provide modern sanitation to all.

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Providing Sanitation

● Improved water supply and sanitation increases water demand o But supply is already short of the

demand.

● It also increases the sewage to be treated o Installed treatment capacity is

already far short of the requirement.

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Then let’s treat all the sewage with the well-established sewage treatment technologies.

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Cost of Sewage Treatment

● Energy costs of treatment o Conventional: 320 KWh/ML [ref]

● Breakup of energy consumed o Aeration 60%

o Anaerobic 11%

o Pumping 12%

● Energy requirements for treatment o 9280 MWh/day (29000MLD x 320 KWh/ML with only

31% population having improved sanitation

o 13,449 MWh/day if 100% population enjoys improved

sanitation.

In a country undergoing an ENERGY CRISIS, how can we

spend large amounts of power for treating sewage?

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● Choose a nearby river, lake, or groundwater source. ● It may be conducted as a:

o Field trip + Home Assignment

o Home Assignment

o Class Activity (by teacher providing necessary data).

● Have them fill out a form with the relevant information: o Use internet resources, newspaper clippings

o Contact government bodies

o Contact local NGOs working in the field of water.

▫ Compare it with IS: 10500 or WHO Guidelines

● Identify main water quality issues (eg. hardness, coliform organisms, specific contaminants etc.)

● Identify other issues (such as eutrophication, drying out, flooding, etc.) and their causes.

Activity: Water Quality in Nearby Sources

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● Coordinated efforts from various sectors and agencies are required.

● Interventions in two areas required: ● Making more water available (Supply side)

o Rainwater Harvesting

o Watershed Management

● Using water efficiently, without polluting resources (Demand Side) o Agriculture

o Industry

o Domestic

Evolving Solutions

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Solutions: Rainwater Harvesting

● Rainwater harvesting[ref] for drinking water ● Assuming >70% India gets at least 40 cm rain. ● >70% population has more than 5 m2/capita roof

area ● With 5 m2 roof area and 40 cm rain, 2000L can be

collected.

● Storage costs: Rs. 0.50-10/L (Rs. 1000-20,000/capita)

● Cost reduction through community self-help. ● Excess collected water to recharge aquifer through

borewell or recharge wells.

Activity: Rainwater Harvesting

for Your Home

• Calculate the total rooftop area for your family and per capita.

• Find out the average annual rainfall for your city • Calculate the amount of rainwater falling on your

roof that can be stored ▫ Assume 20% losses (evaporation and first wash

rejected).

• Design your own rainwater harvesting system, employing the local plumber.

• Calculate system cost.

Dying wisdom Ancient methods intercepted the flow of water without ecological disturbance.

● Hill and mountain regions: ● Diversion channels (guhls and kuhls of western Himalaya).

● Arid and semi-arid regions:

● Tanks (the eri system of Tamil Nadu).

● Checkdams (johads of Rajasthan).

● Plains and floodplains:

● Inundation channels (West Bengal).

● Coastal area:

● Control saline water intrusion(khazana lands of Goa).

Low cost, community controlled, adapted to local ecology and offered protection from droughts and

floods.

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Once we have enough water available for our use,

how can we maximize its benefit? Or how do we use the minimum water to get the

desired benefit?

Food, Water, Land

Watch:

● Change the Way You Think About Food (2.16min). --WWF.

● 300 Year Old Food Forest in Vietnam (6 min)

● Industry runs to provide us with the products we buy.

All of them need water and energy to make, distribute,

use and discard.

● All products contain embodied water:

o Potato (100g) 25L

o Slice of bread (30g) 40L

o Cup of coffee (125ml) 140L

o Bag of potato crisps (200g) 185L

o Glass of milk (200ml) 200L

o Hamburger (150g) 2400L

o Cotton T-shirt (medium, 500g) 4100L

o Pair of shoes (bovine leather) 8000L

Your shopping drains the nation of water and energy!

Reducing consumerism reduces the crisis in water and energy.

Industrial Water Use (8% of total) What can I do?

● Minimize personal water use (domestic, gardening, etc) ‏● Consume only what you need. Shop less and waste

nothing! ● Install/build home greywater recycling systems. ● Use the recycled water for a kitchen garden. ● Install water-conserving toilets or composting toilets

● Close / repair leaking taps ● Use natural domestic and personal cleaners and

cosmetics. Avoid toxic chemicals in the home and garden. ● Install rainwater harvesting. ● Disseminate information on efficient technologies,

organic farming.

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Solutions

Water Pollution

•Prevent groundwater contamination

•Greatly reduce nonpoint runoff

•Reuse treated wastewater for irrigation

•Find substitutes for toxic pollutants

•Work with nature to treat sewage

•Practice four R's of resource use (refuse, reduce, recycle, reuse)

•Reduce resource waste

•Reduce air pollution

•Reduce poverty

•Reduce birth rates

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● The area from which all the water flows to the same place (larger river, lake or ocean.)

● It contains streams, rivers and underground flow. ● Smaller watersheds (the size of a village) are part of

larger watersheds (size of states). ● Natural ecosystems (forests, wetlands) are part of

the watershed. ● Our homes, roads, cities are part of some watershed. ● Pollutants are carried downstream with the water.

Watershed

Credit: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Source:

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=

514&objID=588795&mode=2

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● The basic principle is to slow down the flow of water after rainfall. o Water flowing over the surface can reach the ocean in a

matter of days...no water for the dry months.

o Water that is held up in tanks, or which infiltrates the

ground, takes months or years to reach the ocean...and

can be used during the dry months.

● Adequate availability of water, more even distribution (in space and time) and its quality depends on good management practices throughout the watershed.

Slowing the Flow of Water

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References:

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M Kumar*, P Kumar, AL. Ramanathan, P Bhattacharya, R Thunvik, U K Singh, M Tsujimura, O Sracek in J of

Geochemical Exploration (Accepted on 22-April-2010)

M Kumar, B Kumar, M. S. Rao*, Al. Ramanathan in Hydrogeology Journal (In the press)

M Kumar, AL. Ramanathan*, A.K. Keshri (2009) in Hydrological Processes, (23: 297-310)

M Kumar*, B Sharma, AL. Ramanathan, M. S Rao, B Kumar (2009) Environmental Geology, (56:1171-1181)

P Kumar, M Kumar*, AL. Ramanathan, M Tsujimura (2010) Environmental Geochemistry and Health (Online first)

M Kumar*, K Kumari, U K Singh, AL. Ramanathan (2008) Environmental Geology, (57:873-884) DOI

10.1007/s00254-008-1367-0

M Kumar*, K Kumari, AL. Ramanathan, R Saxena (2007) Environmental Geology, (53;3:553-574) DOI

10.1007/s00254-007-0672-3

M Kumar* , AL. Ramanathan, M. S Rao, B Kumar (2006) Environmental geology (50:1025-1039)