Water: A Precious Resource

Water is a basic and crucial need for all living beings. There can be no existence of living lives without it. Even plants wither and eventually scorch if they are not irrigated for a few days.

Water availability

71% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water stored in the seas and oceans, ice caps, rivers, groundwater, lakes, and the atmosphere. However, most of the water that is available in these forms is not fit for direct consumption for humans. The water that is adequate for drinking is roughly 0.006% of all water found on the Earth that is freshwater.

Forms of Water

The water cycle is a process in which water on the Earth has been maintained for millions of years by various methods. Solid, liquid, and gas are the Forms of water that circulate through the water cycle to assure water availability at any given time somewhere on the Earth.

• Water that is present as snow-covered mountains, ice caps at the poles of the Earth, and glaciers is in the solid form (ice and snow)
• Water that is present in oceans, lakes, rivers, and even underground is in Liquid form
• The water vapor that is present in the air around us is in gaseous form

These Three Forms of Water in the process of the Water Cycle keep the total quantity of water on the Earth consistent even when the whole world is consuming it.

Sources of Freshwater

Rivers, ponds, wells, lakes, handpumps, etc. are major Sources of freshwater.

Groundwater as an important source of water

There is a level below the ground where all the vacuum between grains of soil and holes between gravels is replenished with water. The top-level of this layer is known as the water table.  Groundwater is the source of water that is found below the water table. Infiltration is the process in which the water and rainwater from other sources of water such as ponds and rivers trickle through the soil and fill the vacant spaces and break deep below the surface. The groundwater thus gets restored by the Infiltration process. An aquifer is a place where the groundwater is bottled between the layers of hard gravel below the water table. Hand Pumps, tube wells, and wells help the humans to pump out the water from the aquifers.

Depletion of Water table

Water drawn from underneath the surface gets restored by seepage of rainwater. The water table does not get affected until water extraction is replenished by natural processes. Water table depletion may happen due to many reasons:

• Expand in population
• The rapid expansion of industries
• Decreases in the beneficial area for seepage of water
• Thriving irrigation requirements
• Uncommon rainfall
• Deforestation

Water management

The shortage of water has become a topic of worry throughout the planet. It is calculated that in some years from now more than 1/3rd of the population of the world could face water scarcity making 

Water: a precious resource

Some measures to manage water are:

• Wastage of water during the supply of water through pipes, the leaking taps in buildings and other places need to be rectified
• Excessive usage of water and the overyielding of groundwater should be prevented
• The rainwater can be utilized to restore the groundwater. This is referred to as rainwater harvesting or water harvesting. The traditional way of collecting water in India was Bawari
• Technological interventions can make water usage in farming more financial. Irrigation of plants by using a Drip irrigation method, in which farmers use narrow tubes that deliver water directly at the base 

Conclusion

71% of the Earth is covered with water. However, all of that cannot be consumed by the living organisms.97% of the earth’s water is saline that is present in the oceans and 3% of the earth’s water is fresh that is present in ice caps, glaciers and underground. This fresh water can be obtained from underground rivers and lakes. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. Water is a basic and crucial need for all living beings. There can be no existence of living lives without it.