Water, The Looming Frontier

Context: Highlighting new threats associated with water pollution and indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources.

 

Threats of water pollution and indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources

• Polluted water sources as a source of viruses:
  • NITI Aayog and WaterAid found that over 70% of India’s surface and groundwater is contaminated by human and other waste and is likely to carry viruses.
  • In England, Wales and Scotland, several wastewater samples were tested and were found to carry traces of SARS-CoV-2.
  • Some water­-transmitted viral pathogens are astrovirus, hepatitis A and Norovirus.
• Artificial environments as hubs of mutation: Spaces where animals locked together for mass production.
• Discharge of pollutants in the natural sources: Unlike in the developed world, a huge section of the population in India uses polluted water from sources like rivers, lakes, or groundwater for drinking.
• Non-renewable in nature: Evolutionary resources, once lost, will be lost forever.
• Growing population: While developed countries have stable landscapes and populations whereas India has a growing population, which means there will be growing consumption.

Challenges in checking pollution of water

• Limitations of technology: Reverse Osmosis (RO) to purify water takes out all healthy minerals and nutrients. Other option, ultraviolet aquaguard treatment remains costly.

Way forward

• Acknowledging that there is no technological substitute for living natural resources, thus focus should be on conservation and judicious use of natural living resources.
  • Conserve unpolluted fresh water sources: Unpolluted water sources includes - water lying below forests and aquifers that lie below floodplains of rivers.
  • There is one sacred conservation condition: we should use only a fraction of the annual recharge.
  • Forests and ?oodplains must be declared as water sanctuaries.