Water Crisis
We all know that earth is covered with 70% of water, in that 97.5% is of salt water and only 2.5% is of fresh water. Even in this 2.5% glaciers account for 69.5%, ground water 30.1% and surface water 0.4%.
Water needs to be taken into consideration while designing, since we depend on the portable water for all kinds of activities. On an average for a family of four members per day grey water generation is 168 liters, which can be treated through simple strategies in design and get utilized for other activities (gardening, flushing,) but we are just letting it drain away into sewers and again depending on the portable water.
When we are talking about the water crisis, we could see that no community has been affected in the same way as the other. For instance one place has good water availability, but due to poor infrastructure the untreated water/ unhygienic water again goes into the ecosystem and causes health related issues, on the other side few places lack portable water.
‘Globally 80% of the waste/untreated water again flows back into the social ecosystem.
The World Economic forum ranks water crises the world’s third greatest risk by impact.
India is responsible for 25% of the global annual extraction of groundwater.
In Ahmedabad the ground water level ranges from 80.4 – 565.4m.
We have 16 stepwells in and around Ahmedabad but the sad part is most of them are dried-up and lack maintenance.’ Source – India Times
Why is the water crisis is crucial.? Is water crucial or a water crisis?
‘we all know that the world population is growing rapidly, in which the birth rate is three times the death rate (15,000 birth/hr > 6,316 death/hr – as per UN July_2018 report). Hence the demand for portable water also increases rapidly at a higher rate.
In our contemporary world the migration of people towards urban context is at a higher rate. This is being the crucial problem over the developing countries, since it leads to creation of slums and the consumption of unhygienic water.
Currently only 25% of India’s population has drinking water on their premises. Source – World Health Organization
According to World Bank estimates India will exhaust its fresh water by 2050 at the current rate. Source – clean India journal
How can design help us in solving the problem?
Since the migration of people over urban context is at a higher rate, it is necessary to create a sustainable built environment.
The first and foremost thing when it comes to design is to integrate the 3R’s in our design.
Reduce – use the low flow fixtures.
Here the intent is to enhance the efficiency of plumbing fixtures, thereby minimizing portable water use
Use a water efficient plumbing fixture where the flow rate is less than 8% of the base line criteria.
Reuse – use the treated waste water
Here the intent is to treat waste water generated on site to avoid polluting the receiving stream and make use of treated water to reduce the dependency on potable water.
There are many simple strategies to treat waste water such as Root Zone Method
Recharge – Rain Water Harvesting
Here the intent is to enhance the ground water table and reduce municipal water demand through an effective RWH system.
Design rain water harvesting system to capture at least ‘one day rainfall’ runoff volume from roof and non-roof areas.
“The wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water”