1. What are the causes of Water scarcity?

a. Natural Factors:
 Due to low rains or in drought prone areas water scarcity occurs .E.g Rajasthan and
interior of peninsular plateau
 Availability of water resources varies over space and time due to variations in seasonal
and annualprecipitation.
b. Quantitative Factors:
 Over exploitation, excessive use and unequal access to water among different social
groups causes water scarcity.
Growing Population
 A large and growing population results in greater demand for water and unequal access to it.
 A large population needs MORE water not only for DOMESTIC use but also to
produce more food.
 Water resources are exploited to expand irrigated areas and dry season agriculture to
help in increasing food grain production.
 Excessive use of tube wells for irrigating may lead to falling ground water levels. This has
a negative effect on water availability and food security of the people.
Effects of INDUSTRIALISATION and URBANISATION
 Intensive industrialisation, increasing number of industries and urbanisation puts pressure
on existing fresh water resources.
 Industries also require power which in turn comes from water resources.
 Increasing urbanisation leads to increase in water and energy requirements, thus worsening
the problem.
 Fragile water resources are over exploited and have caused their depletion in various cities.
c. Qualitative Factors
 Water may be available in sufficient quantity, but maybe scarce due to bad quality of water
 Water is polluted due to domestic and industrial wastes, chemicals, pesticides and
fertilisers used in agriculture.
 Polluted water is dangerous for human use.

2. Why is conservation of water resources needed?

Water available is LIMITED, UNEVENLY distributed and POLLUTED, hence
conservation measures are needed for balanced and adequate supply of water to various
users.
Reasons:
 To safeguard ourselves from health hazards
 Ensure food security
 Continuation of livelihood and production activities
 Prevent degradation of natural ecosystems.
Disadvantages of Multi purpose projects.
 Regulating and Damming of rivers affect the natural flow, leading to poor sediment flow
and excessive sedimentation at the river bottom, leading to rockier bed streams and poor
habitats for aquatic life
 Dams fragment rivers, hence difficult for aquatic fauna to migrate, especially during
 Reservoirs created on flood plains, submerge the existing vegetation and soil, leading to
Decomposition.
 Instead of controlling floods, sometimes dams have triggered floods due to sedimentation
in the reservoir E.g Floods of Gujarat and Maharashtra in 2006.
 Floods have led to soil erosion
 Sedimentation meant that flood plains were deprived of silt, adding to the problem
of land degradation
 Gap between rich landowners and landless poor has increased thus changing
the social landscape
 Displacement of local communities takes place on a large scale.
 Inter state conflicts regarding sharing costs and benefits of multi purpose projects. Eg.
Krishna Godavari dispute.
 Multi purpose projects have led to social movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and
Tehri Dam Andolan

15. Why did Jawaharlal Nehru proclaim that dams are the ‘temples of modern India’?
 Modern Dams are built not just for irrigation but also for electricity generation, water supply
for domestic and industrial uses , flood control, navigation etc.
 Multi purpose projects, launched after independence with their integrated water resources
managementapproach, were thought of as the vehicle that would lead the nation
to development and progress, overcoming the handicap of its colonial past.
 Jawaharlal Nehru proclaimed that dams are the ‘temples of modern India’ because dams
would integratedevelopment of agriculture and the village economy with rapid
industrialisation and growth of the urban economy

16. Describe how modern adaptations of traditional rainwater harvesting methods are
being carried out to conserve and store water.
In modern times, rainwater harvesting is done in both rural and urban areas to recharge the
ground-water by capturing and storing rainwater by constructing structures, e.g percolation
pits, dugwells, digging trenches around fields etc.
Nowadays, rainwater harvesting is also done on rooftops using the following procedure
 Roof top rain water is collected using a PVC pipe
 It is filtered using sand and bricks
 An underground pipe takes the water to sump up for immediate usage
 Excess water from the sump is taken to the well
 Water from the well recharges the underground water
 Additionally, storage tanks/reservoirs are built to store rainwater which is later used for
irrigation purposes.

20. Explain the Bamboo drip irrigation system in Meghalaya.

In MEGHALAYA there is a 200 year old system of tapping stream & spring water by using
bamboo pipes.
18 to 20 litres of water enters the bamboo pipe, gets transported over 100’s of metres and is
reduced to 20 -80 drops per minute at the site of the plant.

METHOD:
 Bamboo pipes are used to divert perennial springs on the hilltops to lower reaches by
gravity.
 The channel sections made of bamboo divert water to the site where it is distributed into
branches made of bamboo pipes.
 The water flow is manipulated by changing the position of the pipies.
 At the last stage, the channel sections & diversion units are reduced.
 The last channel section helps water to be dropped near the roots of the plant.