COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY

DIGITAL ASSIGNMENT

Q: Water Resources in India?

A:
India occupies only 2.45 percent of the world’s surface area and
is the home of about 17.5 percent of the world’s population. As against
this, India has only 4 percent of the world’s water resources. The total
water available from precipitation in the country in a year is about 4,000
cubic km. thus; the total utilizable water resource in the country is only
1,122 cubic km.
SURFACE WATER
Surface water is available to us in the form of rivers, lakes, tanks,
ponds and other water bodies. Rivers obtain water from rainfall or from
snow melt. Rivers constitute the most important source of surface water
in India. According to Dr. K.L Rao, there are as many as 10,360 rivers
and their tributaries larger than 1.6 km each spread all over the country.
The mean annual flow in Indian rivers is estimated to be 1,869 billion
cubic meters. However, because of the topographical, hydrological and
other constraints, only about 690 billion cubic meters (32 percent) of the
available surface water can be utilized. Three major rivers of North India
namely the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmahaputra carry nearly 60
percent of the total surface water of India. It is worth mentioning that the
Brahmaputra and the Ganga are world’s eighth and tenth largest rivers
respectively.
GROUND WATER
As mentioned earlier, a part of rain water percolates in the ground
through joints and cracks in the rocks and is known as groundwater.
About 60 percent of the groundwater is confined to the upper layers of
the soil and is very useful for agricultural crops. This water is taken out
by digging wells.
The distribution of groundwater is very uneven in India. It is
affected by the structure of rock, surface configuration and the amount
of rainfall. Therefore, this area is beswoed with vat groundwater
resource. The whole plain so formed by depositional work of rivers
originating in the Himalayan region and has soft sediment and porous
rocks. Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for 19 percent of the estimated
groundwater potential.
The main use of groundwater is for irrigation which consumes
about three-fourth of the total groundwater. The reaming one-fourth is
sused for domestic, industrial and related purpose. Three is large scope
for developing groundwater because only 37.23 percent of the total
available groundwater resource has been developed so far. State-wise
percentage of developed groundwater resource to total available
potential ranges from 1.07 percent in Jammu and Kashmir to 98.34
percent in Punjab.
LAGOONS AND BACKWATERS
India has a very long coastline stretching over more than six
thousand kilometers. This coast is very intended in some states like
kerala, Odisha and Bengal where a large number of lagoons and lakes
have been formed. These lagoons and lakes provide vast surface water
resource. Although, water is generally brackish in these water-bodies, it
is used for fishing and irrigating certain varieties of paddy crops,
coconut,
RECYCLE AND REUSE OF WATER
Available of fresh water can be improved by recycling and
reusing water. Water of inferior quality such as claimed waste can be
used in industries for cooling and fire fighting. In urban areas water after
bathing and washing utensils and bating and vehicles can be used for
gardening. This helps in conserving water of better quality for drinking.
The practice of rewcycling and reusing water is at its intial stage but
there are vast possibilities.
WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
Watershed is georraphic are that drains to a common point, which
makes it an ideal planning units for conservation of soil and water. It
may comprise one or several villages; contain both arable and and non-
arable lands, various category of land holding and farmers. The
watershed approach enables a holistics development of agriculture and
allied activities, such as horticulture, agro-forestry and, silviculture
(forests).
Tamil nadu is one state which has made it mandatory to have water
harvesting structure in the houses. No building is allowed to be
constructed without making provision for water- harvesting structures.
RAINWATER HARVESTING
Large scale depletion of ground is a very serious problem which must be
tackled urgently. Shortage of water is felt in rural areas for irrigation and
or domestic as well as industrial use in urban areas. One of the methods
of solving the problems is rainwater harvesting. It is technique of
increasing the recharge of groundwater by capturing and storing
rainwater locally in sub-surface waterreservoirs to meet the household
needs.

CH.SIRISHA
III B.COM (CA)
REGD NO:161018