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Environment
Convert Wasteland
into Water Sanctuaries
by VK
Joshi
 Our country is facing water crisis. Perhaps more of a man-made crisis!
Most of surface water bodies have been heavily polluted. The ground
water reservoirs are slowly becoming unfit for human consumption, partly
due to anthropogenic and partly due to natural causes.
Fancy for water bodies has been a part of the human nature. All major
cities came up on water front whether of sea, lake or a river. The fancy
continues even today and people want a house overlooking a water body.
It has been water and oxygen on this planet that made the survival and
evolution of life to its highest form, human beings possible.
Initially
a hunter gatherer, man evolved to become a cultivator. In areas with
rich soil conditions agrarian societies developed. In India agriculture
in many parts suffers due to development of wastelands. Statistics show
that about 63.85 million hectares of land has become a wasteland. It
makes a whopping 20.17% geographical area of the country, excluding
Jammu & Kashmir. The J&K part because of accessibility reasons has not
yet been covered says a website of Indian Institute of Technology and
University of Western Ontario, Canada.
There are various types of wastelands, for example, Gullied or Ravinous
land; Land with or without scrub; Waterlogged and marshy land; Land
affected by salinity/alkalinity-coastal/inland; Shifting cultivation
area; Underutilized/ degraded notified forest land; Degraded
pastures/grazing land; Degraded land under plantation cop;
Sands-Inland/coastal; Mining/Industrial wastelands; Barren rocky/stony
waste/sheet rock areas; Steep sloping areas; Snow covered and/or glacial
areas. Out of these wastelands, with or without shrub forms the largest
chunk covering almost 194014.29 square kilometer area which equals to
about 6.13% area of the country. Mining or Industrial waste land on the
other extreme covers about 1252.13 sq km area or 0.04% area of the
country.
Many agencies are working on reclaiming the wastelands and various
measures have been adopted by them. Most of the measures include
plantation and also development and conservation of micro-water sheds.
Recently Vikram Soni of National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi has come
up with an innovative idea of converting wastelands as water sanctuaries
for the country.
Most water sources of the country have been irreversibly polluted he
says. He is very right in saying that groundwater reservoirs even under
agriculture lands have been polluted because of heavy quantities of
pesticides used therein. A study conducted by the Geological Survey Of
India, a few years ago revealed that high fluoride content in
groundwater in Rai Bareilly and Unnao districts of Uttar Pradesh
coincided with a high purchase of pesticides by the farmers of these
areas. Pollution of groundwater by the industries is nothing new here.
In Faridabad, Haryana it is reported that some industries bored holes in
their compounds to discharge the toxic effluents clandestinely, which
has lead to higher number of cases of fluoride toxicity. About the
surface waters, lesser said the better. Ganga and Yamuna once considered
to be pious rivers are now the worst polluted. Their tributaries too
have not been spared.
Due to lack of effective punitive laws for pollution of surface and
subsurface water bodies the polluters go scot-free, oblivious of harm
they are doing to the society. The population boom has lead to reduction
of forest covers. The root system of trees otherwise, acts as a potent
filter to check infiltration of pollutants to sub-surface. Pollution of
water sources via Urban and Industrial wastes has been observed to rise
in developed areas. Under the situation, Vikram Soni says that we can
get better quality groundwater in wasteland rather than from prime
agriculture land.
Wastelands constitute about 20% area of the country. Usually considered
a kind of derelict land, they are sort of neglected. However, being a
potential source for clean groundwater they can become a useful
resource. Quoting K. Chopra and B.N. Golder's (20000 report prepared for
the U.N. University, Soni says earlier attempts at estimating the
wasteland by National Wasteland development Board (NWDB) were based on a
reclassification of the standard land-use data. Thus total estimated
waste land was 129.57 million hectares (m ha) with non-forest wasteland
estimated as 93.69 m ha. Over a period of time the Remote Sensing
techniques using satellite data collected by the countries remote
sensing agency (NRSA) an alternative and apparently more reliable
classification of wastelands has emerged.
Two sets of data have been obtained by the NRSA. First set is based on
the pictures provided by LISS-I satellite with the help of which maps of
wasteland on 1:1 million scales could be prepared. This map showed an
area of 53.30 m ha as wasteland. Whereas the data obtained from LISS-II
helped to produce a map on 1:250,000 scale and that showed an area of
75.53 m ha area as wasteland. Soni has not depended on these figures.
Instead he has used the figures of LISS II/III satellites. Maps obtained
from these imageries have clearly identified gullied and ravine land,
land with or without scrub, degraded notified forest land, degraded
pasture, degraded land under plantation, sands inland/coastal, barren
rocky/stony waste/sheet rock areas and waterlogged and marshy land.
These areas add up to make a total of 518201 sq. km area classified as
wasteland, which can be safely used to extract ground water.
Statistically this makes up to 17% of the country's area.
Wasteland has unpolluted aquifers under it says Soni. He calls it a
resource that can be exploited to combat the water shortage that has hit
the country. No doubt it is a novel idea, but not free from hindrances.
For example many of the wastelands like gullied and ravenous lands have
the problem of approach. In order to drill to depth in a rocky terrain
lot of water is required. During normal exploration for gold in the
Sonbhadra district of U.P. author remembers water had to be hauled from
long distances in tankers to keep the machines working. At times water
had to be pumped from a source and carried to the site through pipeline.
Since those exploratory drill holes were of shallow depth and narrow in
diameter carrying water was affordable. For a tube-well the cost of
carrying colossal amount of water will add up to the cost of the well.
But yes the wastelands do have a good amount of clean water at depth.
Some techniques have to be developed to bring that water to the surface
and utilize. Many of the wastelands were green lands till a few years
ago. For example, Banda district of U.P. now almost becoming a wasteland
because of water scarcity was full of greenery recalls a Mr. N.P.
Tripathi a retired Conservator of Forests. Such areas with little effort
can be made green again with the help of proper watershed management at
the micro level. Howsoever scanty rainwater is lost as a runoff in such
areas. Therefore proper rainwater harvesting measures can help to make
the area green again.
In this endeavor the old method of dug com bore ponds should prove quite
useful. These ponds have narrow diameter bore holes in the deepest part
which serve a two way purpose. They charge the water table through the
water in the hole and at some stage keep the pond level maintained by
providing water. Such dug cum bore ponds used to exist in Mehrauli area
of south Delhi, now perhaps buried under mushrooms of multistoried
apartments!
It is time to think and come out with novel ideas like Vikram Soni has
done and to implement them in letter and spirit. Else the future of
Indian society could be thirsty!
June 29, 2008
Image under license with
Gettyimages.com
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