Water Conservation and Management: Towards a Societal and Technological Initiative for Sustainable Development

Abstract

III mallY regions oj india Gild 'he world as a whole, water has been considered a/ree resource. Howevel; recent climatic vagaries, the Izydrologic e.xtreme el'e11lS slich as droughts, floods and dwindling waleI' resources arollnd 'he world have substantiated a need for a change ill hum all perception ahoul its lIses, conservation alld management practices. With this background the chapter presents the water siwGrion 01 COll1wy Gild world level as a whole owing to rite rapidly increasing popUlation, agricultural, socio-economic and induslrial del'elopmellls. 8ased on Waler Crowding Illdex (WCI) alld Warer Scarcity Index (WSI). Gosling and Amell (2016) eSlimaled Ihal around 1.6 alld 2.4 billion people. respeclive~y, are currently living within watersheds exposed to water scarcity and by 2050 IInder A 18 scenario it will be 0.5 10 3.1 billioll people. The impacls o[poPlllation. IIrbani:(llioll alld illdustriali;atioll all water resources are discussed ill detail and based 011 the presell1 per capita sw/ace water availability alld according to rhe Faikelllllark Water Siress Indicator (FWSI). Jaill (20 11) [olllld Ihal Ihe cOlllllly will shortly elller the water stressed categ01)1 and the stress will progressively become more sel'ere. Lastly, this chapter suggests some of the required initiatives slich as replacement of aging water infrastructure to prel'enlloss of NOli-revenue Waler (NRW) and water thefts, emphasis on waleI' and ellvironmelll education, Ileed of WaterSMART campaigns/programs 10 the Illne of SMART-Cities, and applications of precision farming techniques, plastics ill agriculture. applications of GIS alld remote sensingfor efficielll rainwater harvesting, alld application of advanced micro-irrigation systems techniques to effectively tackle the problem of water scarcitY;1/ India.