WATER- THE DROP OF LIFE- EVERY DROP COUNTS!

Despite water being an existential need for humans, it’s also one of the most under prioritized but over abused commodity. Water is central to our lives but has not been the central point of focus in our planning while we rapidly evolve into an urban society.

Through time, early societies understood the importance and need for water and planned their lives around it. Civilizations were born and lost on account of water. Today, we have the advantage of this knowledge and we still fail to value it and plan our societies around it.

Let’s focus on India. The world’s oldest civilization grew around the Indus and the Ganges and is still thriving. But not for long. Post-independence, due importance was given to harnessing the power of water by way of controlling and storing of water through large Dams. That was the need of the hour. However, our cities and towns have subsequently grown without planning for water need vs water availability.

Reasons behind water scarcity in India

The water scarcity is mostly man made due to excess population growth and mismanagement of water resources. Some of the major reasons for water scarcity are:

Inefficient use of water for agriculture. India is among the top growers of agricultural produce in the world and therefore the consumption of water for irrigation is amongst the highest. Traditional techniques of irrigation causes maximum water loss due to evaporation, drainage, percolation, water conveyance, and excess use of groundwater. As more areas come under traditional irrigation techniques, the stress for water available for other purposes will continue. The solution lies in extensive use of micro-irrigation techniques such as drip and sprinkler irrigation.

Reduction in traditional water recharging areas. Rapid construction is ignoring traditional water bodies that have also acted as ground water recharging mechanism. We need to urgently revive traditional aquifers while implementing new ones.

Sewage and wastewater drainage into traditional water bodies. Government intervention at the source is urgently required if this problem is to be tackled.

Release of chemicals and effluents into rivers, streams and ponds. Strict monitoring and implementation of laws by the government, NGOs and social activists is required.

Lack of on-time de-silting operations in large water bodies that can enhance water storage capacity during monsoon. It is surprising that the governments at state levels has not taken this up on priority as an annual practice. This act alone can significantly add to the water storage levels.

Lack of efficient water management and distribution of water between urban consumers, the agriculture sector and industry. The government needs to enhance its investment in technology and include all stakeholders at the planning level to ensure optimization of existing resources.

Urban nightmare

The problem has been compounded with increased concretization due to urban development that has choked ground water resources. Water is neither being recharged nor stored in ways that optimizes its use while retaining the natural ingredients of water. In addition, the entry of sewage and industrial waste into water bodies is severely shrinking the availability of potable water. Marine life is mostly lost in these areas already. This is the genesis of a very serious emerging crisis. If we do not understand the source of the problem we will never be able to find sustainable solutions.

Solutions to overcome water scarcity problems

Every independent home/flat and group housing colony must have rain water harvesting facility. If efficiently designed and properly managed, this alone can reduce the water demand significantly.

Waste water treatment and recycling for non-drinking purposes. Several low cost technologies are available that can be implemented in group housing areas.

Very often, we see water leaking in our homes, in public areas and colonies. A small steady water leak can cause a loss of 226,800 liters of water per year! Unless we are aware and conscious of water wastage we will not be able to avail the basic quantity of water that we need to carry on with our normal lives.

ARCHITECTURAL IDENTITY

In ancient times, every civilization had their own cultural imprint on their architecture. If you study the traditional architecture of different regions, you will find that each of them had some sense of identity which differentiated one style from another, one civilization from another, but each amazing and incredible in their own right!

But today, that sense of cultural imprint is missing especially in developing countries who only look westward for their influence!They do not imbibe their technical finesse but merely "copy" the design aspects and features! Most of the structures end up as replicas of one another, and do not have anything to say about the local culture or its people..

I would say that the ancient traditional designers worked marvels with their limited resources and technology, but we with our advanced technologies have failed in that aspect! We may be building technical marvels, but we are building structures that do not relate to the local environment! These structures may be strong in foundation, but very poor in their cultural roots.

Architecture in its true sense is 'an image of the society at a particular point of time' ...therefore it may be in any form. Whether you call the form post modern or any other is a secondary issue in this case.For example, if after a hundred years, someone digs down and finds what has happened today...what will he think bout the people who live here today?...He'll probably think 'here lived some people who had the money and just did whatever they liked'. Wherever you look, you will find an image of chaos today. No culture, no IDENTITY.

Mohenjo Daro and Harappa tell us stories of a lost world. The lost civilization along the Indus Valley. Their ruins tell us about their people, their lifestyle,their adaptation to climate, their technological advancement,their life, their Gods, their means of entertainment.

WHAT stories do our buildings of today tell? How India has taken 100 years to master technologies developed in other countries?? How we have forgotten the vast oceans of knowledge buried in our ancient texts waiting to be recognised by some scholars of the "developed " countries?? It is indeed very very sad and highly ironical that today, on the one hand we rejoice the "technological marvel" labelled as RAJIV SETU and on the other, spending endless amounts of time and money on destroying the unexplainable marvel called as the RAM SETU.