May 20, 2023

A CORRELATIVE LOOK AMONG WATER MANAGEMENT, GLOBAL WARMING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT – Dr. Kuldeep Singh Suhag

By Gina Journal

A CORRELATIVE LOOK AMONG WATER MANAGEMENT, GLOBAL WARMING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Kuldeep Singh Suhag

Abstract: The pandemic threatens global human life and health, which will be further worsened by intensifying hunger and malnutrition from disrupting the food supply chain mainly in developing countries and it is escalating the challenges for global food security. The concept of reuse, recycle and reduction in resources and available facilities is widely accepted as path toward sustainable development. In another words inter-generational equality by stopping over-exploitation of resources, reducing waste-discharge and emissions, and maintaining an ecological balance. expects to hand over a safe, healthy and resourceful environment to the future generations. Intra-generational equality within and between the nations by such a type of technological development which will support economic growth of poor Countries so as to reduce the wealth gap between the nations. The sustainable development includes all the biomass energy technologies, energy efficiency systems, energy conservation scenarios, energy savings and other mi1tigation measures necessary to reduce emissions globally. This study highlights the energy problem and their possible saving that can be achieved through the use of biomass energy sources. Also, this study clarifies the background of the study, highlights the potential energy saving that could be achieved. The use of biomass energy source describes the objectives, approach and scope of the theme. However, to be truly competitive in an open market situation, higher value products are required. Results suggest that biomass technology must be encouraged, promoted, invested, implemented, and demonstrated as a whole while especially in remote rural areas.

Keywords:, Keywords: Biomass resources, energy, environment, Industrial Effluents,

  1. Introduction

Basically global warming is the phenomenon of gradual increase in the average temperature of earth . It is caused by the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs etc. into the atmosphere. Global warming can result in many serious alterations to the environment, eventually impacting human health. It can also cause a rise in sea level, leading to the loss of coastal land, a change in precipitation patterns, increased risks of droughts and floods, and threats to biodiversity. The significant reasons of global warming can be summerized as Industrial development and increased greenhouse gases, variations in solar activity, volcanic activity, reflectivity or absorption of the energy from sun, changes in the earth’s reflectivity,changes in the earth’s orbit and rotation etc. For general understanding the global warming is the increase in average global temperature due to increase in amount of GHG (green house gases) in the earth atmosphere. The average global temperature is 15 degree celsius which is maintained due to presence of certain gases like carbon-di-oxide, methane,  water vapour (H20), nitrous oxide (N2O) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) present in the troposphere (lowermost zone of atmosphere). These gases are collectively called heat-trapping or Greenhouse gases (GHGs). Earth’s temperature is maintained by reradiated infra-red (heat) radiations by these GHGs which prevent heat from escaping to outer space, so are functionally comparable to glass panels of a greenhouse which keep CO, concentration higher and so higher temperature inside the greenhouse. So this effect is called Greenhouse effect. These GHGs contribute to the tune of 33 degree effect as in their absence, the average global temperature would have been as low as -18 degree.

  1. Sources and relative contribution of different greenhouse gases (GHG) to global warming:
  2. Carbon Dioxide: Main sources of CO2, are combustion of fossil fuels like Coal, oil, etc. About 67%in the homes and factories; process of respiration, volcanic Activities; deforestation; etc. It is estimated that more than 18 billion tonnes of CO, Is produced annually from the fossil fuels. It contributes about 60% of global Warming. It has increased from 280 ppm (in 1750 AD) to 368 ppm level in 2000 A.D And it this trend continues, it may increase to a level between 540 and 970 ppm by The end of 21st
  3. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): Main sources of CFCs are refrigerators and air conditioners, plastic foams, aerosols (chemicals present in air as fine liquid droplets) emitted in jet emission, etc. These are responsible for 14% of global warming. CFCs are mainly responsible for ozone-depletion of the ozonosphere.
  4. Methane: About 40% of methane is produced from swamps, wetlands, paddy fields, guts of livestock’s like sheep, buffaloes, etc. and burning of biomass, during production and use of petroleum oil. It is responsible for about 20% of global warming.
  5. Nitrous oxide: It’s main sources are nylon products, burning of coal, breakdown of nitrogen fertilizers in soil etc. It is responsible for about 6% of global warming.
  • Effects of global warming:
  1. Rise in sea level: Global warming will melt the polar ice caps. It is estimated that if all the ice on the earth melts, about 200 feet of water would be added to the surface of all oceans. Satellite pictures have shown that the polar ice has been shrinking by 10 per cent per decade since 1980.Due to global warming, India-Khumbu glacier of Mt. Everest has retreated by 5km since 1953 while sea ice cover of Arctic ocean has declined by 6% from 1978 to 1995. It is estimated that an increase of only 3°C atmospheric temperature may rise sea level by 0.2-1.5 meters over the next 50-100 years. This may inundate low lying coastal cities like Shanghai, Bangkok, Dhaka, Venice, San Francisco, Cairo, Sydney, etc. In India, this effect may also threaten the inundation of Lakshadweep Islands , Mumbai and deltas of Ganges (West Bengal), Cauvery (T.N.), Godavari (A.P.) and Mahanadi (Orissa).
  2. Increase in global temperature: It is estimated that if the present input trend of GHGs continued, then Earth’s mean global temperature will rise. A December 2003 report has predicted that global warming would be faster during the 21st century and average global temperature would be 5.5°C higher by 2100 A.D.
  3. Ecological disturbance: North America will be warmer and drier while North and East Africa, India, W. Australia and Mexico will be warmer and wetter. Worst drought of 2001 in Kenya which affected about 4 million people was due to global warming. Another notable effect of global waming is increasing area of deserts. More chances of hurricanes, cyclones and floods will be more which will damage the lagoons, estuaries and coral reefs. These ecological disturbances due to global warming may cause extinction of more than one million species of animals and plants by 2050 A.D.
  4. Effect on agriculture: The response of plants to elevated concentrations of CO is called Carbon Dioxide fertilization effect. It is estimated that with increase in CO, concentration, some plants will show increased photosynthesis, reduced transpiration, more water-use efficiency, greater root production, increased nitrogen fixation in the root nodules, etc. which may increase the growth of plants by about 30 per cent. But all these beneficial effects will be negated by the ill effects on most of plants by: increased evaporation, decreased soil moisture, increased pest growth etc. which may adversely attect the wheat and maize production.
  5. Effect on human health: Increased temperature and humidity caused by Global warming will increase the chances of spread of vectors of a number of human diseases like malaria, filariasis, schistosomiasis etc. These climatic changes will also increase the incidence of respiratory and skin diseases in human beings. Keeping in view these ill-effects of global warming, UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) chosen the following slogan in 1989. Now “5th June” is celebrated as World Environmental Day” since 1989, in the whole world

 2.2 Measures to check global warming: Considering global warming as a everyday increasing problems various researchers suggested many views as per their different methods of studies and observations. Here we suggested summarized conclusion from few of them.

  1. Control of population growth by decreasing the birth rate.
  2. Afforestation (Planting more trees on new areas).
  3. Deforestation reversal by reforestation.
  4. Reduction in the use of chlorofluorocarbons.
  5. To trap and use methane as a fuel.
  6. Shift from coal to natural gas or electricity as energy-source.
  7. More use of non-conventional sources of energy like nuclear energy, wind power and solar energy.
  8. Automobiles should be made more fuel efficient and less taxing on the environment.
  9. Reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration with the help or Algal growth.

2.3 Some International initiatives for mitigating global climate change

Since last 50 years globally all countries are following corrective measure towards this problem. Many of the treaties and protocols have been signed from various nations. In  Canada, year 1987, Montreal Protocol was signed by main industrialised countries, the  protocol focussed to stabilize the atmospheric concentrations of GHGs. In this landmark international agreement, these countries agreed to limit the production and use of ozone depleting substances, phasing out of ozone-depleting substances and helping the developing countries to implement use of alternatives of CFCs. Upto-date, more than 175 countries, including India, have signed this protocol. This protocol was signed On September 16, 1987, therefore September 16 is celebrated as “International Day for the Preservation of Ozone layer” by international community. Furthermore, The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held as its first Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. This summit also established the principles for reducing greenhouse gas emission. Later on  Conference of Parties (COP)COP-I was held at Berlin (Germany),COP-II was held at Geneva (Switzerland) in July 1996,COP-III was held at Kyoto (one of Japan’s least polluted cities) in December, 1997. The Kyoto protocol highlighted that the European nations should reduce their Greenhouse emission by 8 per cent below till the 1990 level, the United States by 7% and Japan by 6 % by the commitment period 2008 and 2012.Cop-IV to be held at Hague in November 2000 was suspended and was later held at Bonn (Germany) in July 2001. In the same series The UK hosted the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 13 November 2021. The COP26 summit brought parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

  1. From unsustainable to sustainable development

The debate on Unsustainable v/s sustainable development has been a burning topic always since global warming impacts on new world. Development brings benefits to all the people of all the nations for the present as well as future generations. Unsustainable development means the development of a few privileged nations both in science and technology so resulting their faster growth but at the cost of our life-supporting systems like air, water and soil. It involves over-exploitation of our natural resources which may lead to the collapse of the inter-related systems of the earth. G.H. Brundtland (1987), former Prime Minister of Norway and Director of World Health Organisation (WHO), defined sustainable development as “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It was first time discussed in detail on an international level in the Earth Summit, UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held at Rio de Janerio (Brazil) in 1992.

3.1 Principles for sustainable development:

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF-N) laid down nine principles for sustainable development: Minimize depletion of non-renewable resources. These principles always focuses on the conservation of earth’s vitality and diversity, to change of personal attitudes and practices, to improve the quality of life-supporting systems of the earth, to keep the population within the carrying capacity of the earth, to enable communities to care their own environment, respect and care for the other communities, to create a global alliance, and to provide framework for development and conservation. Globally, there are two aspects of sustainable development: one is inter-generational equality by stopping over-exploitation of resources, reducing waste-discharge and emissions, and maintaining an ecological balance. expects to hand over a safe, healthy and resourceful environment to the future generations. Second is intra-generational equality within and between the nations by such a type of technological development which will support economic growth of poor Countries so as to reduce the wealth gap between the nations. The sustainable development follows four basic steps for suggestive measures which are firstly 3-R approach should be followed which states:Reduce excessive use of natural resources like fossil fuels, minerals, water etc. Reuse of natural resources instead of waste generation and pollution, Recycle the materials to reduce pressure on our existing natural resources. Secondly to promote environmental education and awareness through our education system and mass media to develop a feeling of belongingness to earth, called Earth thinking, from the childhood. Third, to use locally adaptable, eco-friendly and resource-efficient  technology which will use less of resources and produce minimum wastes. Fourth, to utilize resources as per carrying capacity of the environment. Carrying capacity has two basic components, supporting capacity is formed of productive systems (which produce food, croplands, orchards, etc.) and protective systems (which buffer air and water cycles and keep moderate environmental temperature eg. Oceans) and assimilative capacity formed of systems which utilize the wastes produced by human activíties eg. waterways, wetlands, etc.

3.2 Energy-Related Urban Problems

Energy is the most important input for development. Now a days, energy is required in every walk of life like industry, transport, defence, agriculture, etc. The energy requirements of developed countries is much more than that of developing ccountries.eg. per capita consumption of energy in USA is now about 250,000 k.cal., while it is about 10,000 kcal. per person in India. Within a country, the energy requirements of urban population are much higher than that of rural ones. This is due to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and higher standard of life and life style. Energy problems become more severe due to limited amount of non- renewable resources of energy like coal, petroleum and natural gas e.g. our coal reserves may last not more than 100 years while oil reserves may be exhausted within 50-60 years. Further, rapid utilization of fossil fuels results increased production of wastes which cause environmental pollution. Steps to solve energy-related problems:

  1. To develop renewable and pollution-free energy resources like solar radiation, wind power, geothermal power, hydel power, nuclear power, biomass etc.
  2. Judicious use of our non-renewable sources of energy and their wastage should be avoided.
  3. Non-renewable energy Resources should be used only when no non-conventional source of energy is available.
  4. The need of WATER CONSERVATION and its awareness

Water is renewable resource. It is vital to life as it is involved in many physiological processes of both plants and animals.eg. digestion of food by the process of hydrolysis of complex components, involved in the process of photosynthesis, as habitat for many organisms, regulate the climate acts as a good solvent and an ionizer to increase the rate of reaction etc. It also acts as a temperature buffer due to high specific heat. So water is indispensable resource. Water management means to manage all resources of water which are uses by human being in daily life like drinking water, irrigation water, industrially used water, which are coming from different resource like rivers, tubules, rain, dams etc. Water management having different level such as micro to macro levels. The micro level means that , a small steps of management like polluted water management, ground water recharge through borewells, rain water harvesting, which is managed by peoples or other govt. and non govt organisation. The macro levels water management means that ,its doing large scale like big plant in urban cites to process polluted water into clean water ,dams on rivers, artificial lakes, etc. activities doing at large scales by govt organisation.

  • Need for water conservation

The total water in hydrosphere is about 1.4 million cubic kiloletres. About 97 per cent of it is ocean water which cannot be consumed by human beings so only 3 per cent of water is available for human consumption. Water requirements have greatly increased due to rapid population growth, industrialisation and agriculture. This necessitates conservation of water. One should follow the following steps for water conservation:

i)) Economical utilization of water.

  1. ii) Preventing the pollution of our water sources by domestic sewage and industrial effluents

iii) Dams should be built to store the flood water.

  1. iv) Afforestation and reforestation at hill slopes to check loss of water in floods.

(v) To maintain top soil to check the soil erosion.

(vi) To decrease loss of water in surface run-off by employing contour cultivation; terrace-farming; developing water-storage structures like farm ponds; adding surfactants and chemical conditioners (like gypsum, hydrolysed poly-acrylonitrile, etc.) to the soil to improve soil permeability; etc.

(vii) To reduce evaporation losses by developing subsoil horizontal asphalt barriers or adding super sulphate (a copolymer of starch and acrylonitrile) on the sandy soil to increase wate

(viii) To reduce irrigation losses of water by drip-irrigation; growing hybrid crop varieties (have low water requirements); early morning or late evening irrigation; and brick-lining of canals (to reduce seepage).

(ix)To prevent wastage of water in households, commercial buildings and public places.

(x)Promote recycling of water and treated water should be used for irrigation purposes.

(xi) To increase block pricing to avoid wastage.

4.2 Awareness and implementation related to water management

Water management awareness is very important for conservation of fresh water.Today lot of palaces of world under water scarcity which is solely due to human activities .An irresponsible water management and other nature related activities keep negative impact seeing on all fields of human beings ,one of them is water pollution and  its scarcity. Therefore it’s the need of hoir that  whole worlds should be aware about water related problems and how to conserve water, what is impact on future by water. Water management awareness and implementation have its different effects on different levels like village, block, district ,state, country and world level. Here we  summarized some of them.

4.1   Water management awareness program at village level

  1. Village level awareness to people is lowest level of awareness of water management.
  2. The village level awearness can highlight on people cultural or social activity such as during sports competition among villages and give message about water management.
  3. In a village school Water management related program can be organised by school authorities for awareness about water management like essay writing ,poster making etc.
  4. organise program for village farmers to aware about irrigation activity and other water management activity related to agriculture.
  5. Regarding implementation steps the village panchayat can work with villagers into management of households waste water purification in plants or used for irrigation activities.
  6. policies implementation in village related to water management should be done at panchayat level. The village wells, ponds (talaab) should be  cleaned time to time by panchayat.
  7. The water supply infrastructure should be proper designed like pipelines leakage, open tap like problems shold be solved by panchayat at village level.

4.2 Water management awareness program at Block level

  1. The block is collection of 20-30 village so this is more than village and less than district. At this level awareness program are community & religious based therefore the people can be awared through their belief by related organisation.
  2. At block level in education institute water management related programme can be organised like jalsa ,street rally by collage or school students with effective slogans of water management.
  3. At block level competition organised between village, schools like poster making ,essay writing on water management, poetry etc. and awarded to student for motivation them.
  4. The govt. policies are implement at block level through block panchayat (zila parishad,block samiti)water distributaries are clean properly to avoid water leakage.
  5. Water boxes at block level infrastructure proper design to supplies water to more village without any loss of water.
  6. Time to time monitoring of water management related issues by govt official at block level .

4.3 Water management awareness program at District level

  1. The district area is bigger than block area so here special water management authority can be appointed by government for better management.
  2. In district due to road and street construction activity affect the underground pipelines thatswhy authority need to maintenance of pipelines time to time to avoid water leakage.
  3. The district authority should make policies for industrial use of water and pollution of water and pollution of water due to industrial waste.
  4. Furthermore at state level awareness program the government officials like defence personal of state, teachers, and other government servants should take initiatives for water management for their general life and motivate them for aware more peoples.
  5. Various state level competition can be organise by state govt. on water management to aware more people and appreciations should be given at all levels of in field of water management to people who work for water management like village level award ,district level award and state level award .
  6. In education institutes from school to universities water management related subjects should be introduces in academic curriculum with their core subjects or course to aware at school level to student about water management.
  7. State level:- Implement Steps

Conclusion

Its well known that potable water on earth surface is approximately 2 % only and its 1% in form of frozen state (glacier) remaining 1 % in rivers and other resources of fresh water. Therefore with the increase of population of world pressure increase on water resources and other activities which are affect fresh water, so we need to work on water management with more dedication to conserve water for future generation. The objective of this articl was  to highlight problems related to global warming, water management and the sustainable development and its applications and suggest methods to overcome these problems. This will be achieved through a comprehensive literature review and their application and the related problems. The current literature is reviewed regarding the ecological, social, cultural and economic impacts of all three aspects. This study gives an overview of present and future use of resources as feedstock for mankind. Now a days a large focus is on uses of solar energy- hydropower, nuclear and thus participates harmoniously in the natural flow of energy through the environment. But we uses oil, gas, coal and nuclear power which always modify our environment with or without this source of energy. Economic importance of environmental issue is increasing, and new technologies are expected to reduce pollution derived both from productive processes and products, with costs that are still unknown. The degradation of the global environment is one of the most serious issues and we all should together try to combat this globally.

References:

  1. Clark, William; Harley, Alicia (2020). “Sustainability Science: Toward a Synthesis”. Annual Review of Environment and Resources45(1): 331–86
  2. Al- Amin, A., Ahmed, F., Alam, G.M. and Azam, M.N. (2015). How do environmental changes challenge the sustainable development of Asia? Asian Journal of Earth Sciences, 8: 1–14.
  1. Ramsey, Jeffry L. (2015). “On Not Defining Sustainability”. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 28 (6): 1075–1087. 
  2. Kotzé, Louis J.; Kim, Rakhyun E.; Burdon, Peter; du Toit, Louise; Glass, Lisa-Maria; Kashwan, Prakash; Liverman, Diana; Montesano, Francesco S.; Rantala, Salla (2022), Sénit, Carole-Anne; Biermann, Frank; Hickmann, Thomas (eds.), “Chapter 6: Planetary Integrity”, The Political Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals: Transforming Governance Through Global Goals?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–171,
  3. Berg, Christian (2020). Sustainable action : overcoming the barriers. Abingdon, Oxon. ISBN978-0-429-57873-1
  4. Flint, R.W. (2004). Sustainable development: What does sustainability mean to individuals in the conduct of their lives and businesses. In: Mudacumura, G.M. and Shamsul Haque, M.S. (Eds.). Handbook of development policy studies. Marcel Dekker, New York, http://www.dekker.com/servlet/product/productid/0602-1. ISBN 0-8247-0602- 1. 2004; pp. 67–87
  5. Kumar, C. (2014). Climate change in South Asia: A framework of sustainable development and human security. Journal of Environment Pollution and Human Health, 5: 100– 109.
  6. UN (United Nations) (2014). The millennium development goals report 2014. New York: UN.
  7. Sola, A.O. (2014). Environmental education and public awareness. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 4(3): 333–337.
  8. Lambin, E.F. and Meyfroidt, P. (2011). Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity. PNAS, 108(9): 3465–3472.
  9. Leach, M., Mearns, R. and Scoones, I. (1997). Environmental entitlements: A conceptual framework for understanding the institutional dynamics of environmental change. IDS Bulletin, 28(4): 4–22
  10. Heal, G. (2009). “Climate Economics: A Meta-Review and Some Suggestions for Future Research”. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy3(1): 4–21

Author’s Contact:

Dr. Kuldeep Singh Suhag

Associate Professor

Department of Geography

Govt. (PG) College for Women, Rohtak, India