WATER FOOT PRINT INFORMATION ON LABELS-IS IT FEASIBLE?

Water is a critical substance that is essential for sustaining life on this planet. The herculean efforts by the space exploring countries to find evidence of water in other planets are mainly to see whether they are habitable places for human beings. As most of the living systems have water content at levels between 55% and 78% depending on the body size, there are minimum requirements below which survival is not possible. A daily consumption of 1 ml of water for every calorie of food consumed is a bench mark standard agreed by many experts, which works out to about 2 liters a day for an average healthy adult. Intake of too much water can cause water intoxication leading eventually to death, while too little can contribute to dehydration and other lethal consequences.

Water bodies in the earth constitute more than 70% of the surface area and though there is abundance of this material, the only problem in utilizing them is the salt content in most of these water sources. Oceans contain more than 97% of the water on earth and the salinity of this water can be as high as 4%. Remaining 3% only has to bear the burden of meeting the fresh water needs of about 7 billion people in this world. While 0.9% of fresh water sources are locked up under the ground (30%) and in polar ice caps and glaciers (70%), remaining portion is spread over lakes (87%) and swamps (11%) in different continents. Over decades fresh water availability has been shrinking alarmingly because of increasing population and higher usage as demanded by the modern industrial society. In 1850 water availability was 43000 Cubic Meter (CM) per person per year which dramatically declined to 9000 CM in 1990. There is wide disparity in water availability in different countries. While countries like Canada, Norway etc have more than 1,00,000 CM some countries in North Africa and Middle East gets only 100 CM.

Water usage also shows wide disparity amongst nations with average American splurging on 1600 CM, European using 725 CM while the African has to be content with 250 CM. It is estimated that the minimum water need of a person is about 40 to 60 liters a day for domestic use though more than half the population in this planet does not have access to even a fraction of this quantity. Food and agriculture may be the single largest user of water and according to some estimates more than 70% of fresh water goes for irrigation. Here again there is some disparity in efficiency of water use as most developing countries draw more than 90% of their water resources for irrigation while in technologically advanced countries irrigation demand is less than 30%.

Profligacy of water use can be shocking to the conscience of every denizen on this planet living already with lot of uncertainties about future, especially dangers from man-made environmental degradation. If one wants to dramatize the relation between water consumption and some of our day to day activities, following illustrations will suffice. The cup that cheers viz Coffee requires about 140 liters of water to produce while its cousin viz tea requires 30 liters of water in its production cycle! It may be shocking to know that a quantity of 3400 is required for getting 1kg of rice, 1300 liters for 1kg of wheat or barley and 15,500 liters for 1kg of beef. This poses a serious challenge to water conservationists as to how to sensitize the world regarding the criticality of water for survival. The two major players involved in this scenario are the industrial sector including agriculture and the consumer community. While mandatory regulations can be put in place regarding scientific norms of water usage, who will generate future technologies for reduced water consumption for various industrial processes? Obviously the governments will have to do this through financial incentives and direct economic subsidies.

There is another area which needs consideration for driving the forces that will work continuously to achieve reduction of water used by the industry and that calls for mandatory information on water use per kg of any product to be declared on the label by all industries without exception. This will enable the consumers to shun those which are water guzzlers while favoring those with credible water saving credentials. if water conservationists have their say world should have a "water foot print" concept similar to the "carbon foot print" system which is being followed voluntarily by some food manufacturers in some countries. The much acclaimed "Energy Star" rating system that grades home appliances and electronic equipment based on electricity use efficiency. evolved by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1992, has almost become a global standard adopted in many countries. Of course in the case of energy utilization grading, consumer has an economic interest in the form of reduced energy bill which may automatically make the system universally acceptable.

The critical question that will have to be addressed is whether a standard methodology capable of producing results that will be consistent is available to day for assessing water utilization. In absence of such a universal system to estimate water input in various operations involved in manufacturing a particular product by different people in different countries, only chaos will rule giving room for unscrupulous players to misuse this concept claiming low water utilization by their products in front of the label. Global cooperation in evolving a dependable assessment technology, preferably under the aegis of UNIDO, WHO and FAO, will go a long way to introduce compulsory "water foot print" labeling over a period of time, say in about a decade.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

RAIN WATER CONSERVATION-CITIZEN VS GOVERNMENTS

Rain water harvesting has become a fashionable topic for discussion and scores of seminars and workshops are being held frequently to persuade the general citizenry to invest in establishing the required infrastructure in their premises. In some states rain harvesting is made compulsory before construction license is issued. While conservation of water is a top priority area that calls for taking any and every conceivable action by one and all, the economic dimension of programs advocated for rain water harvesting must be critically considered. We know that despite two third of our planet's surface being covered with water, there are many places where water shortage is common place. The old saying that "water, water every where but not a drop to drink" is literally true in many places. Places abutting the Arabian sea, Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and innumerable backwater bodies, all suffer from water shortages, especially for human consumption and the technology for desalination may be investment intensive and less cost effective compared to current cost of water from other sources. Added to the misery of Indian population, the water table in many places in the country is fast receding and bore-wells, indiscriminately being drilled, are progressively getting dry necessitating deeper and deeper boring. On an average the water tables in the country are dipping by 40 cm but in many areas due to over exploitation the table is dipping further at a much faster rate.

A major portion of water precipitated through rains flow through rivers to end up in the sea though construction of dams salvage some of these run offs. Evaporation from the surface of water bodies and the ground water also result in net water loss. Use of evaporation retarding agents like long chain alcohols was advocated for some time but found impractical on a large scale. Under such a situation, with demand for water increasing daily because of population expansion, ground water conservation becomes indeed critical. Is it fair to impose the burden of water conservation on individuals when governments at the state and central levels are shirking their responsibility? In stead of planning the residential settlements providing the required infrastructure for ground water recharging, houses coming up on 600 to 2400 s.ft size land sites are forced to set up rain water harvesting facilities entailing large investment with practically no benefits to the individual. Even a small facility will cost not less than Rs 25000 which probably will provide a months supply for a family of three. The microbiological quality of water harvested and stored for months together may be an area of concern if it is to be used for potable purpose. As for ground water recharging, it may be necessary to spend at least Rs 8000 to put a recharge bore of 50 ft by each house owner for the sake of the neighborhood. Is this socially equitable? If each section of the urban settlement has storm water drains, is it not expedient to plan using this water during rainy season for local ground water recharging?

Out of the estimated 4 trillion cubic meter(CM) rain water received, less than 50% ends up in the rivers and only 35% of this is effectively utilized. Half a trillion CM of ground water available in the country accumulated over thousands of years is recklessly being exploited without allowing it to be replenished. Millions of wells, innumerable tanks, lakes and water bodies are not being maintained properly and resultant loss of storage capacity adds to the water woes. It is a sad commentary on the efficiency and commitments of the ruling class that none of the 50 and odd cities get water supply for more than a few hours a day! Rs 0.5 trillion Inter Linking of Canals (ILR) project connecting 37 major rivers through thousands of canals and many large dams, due for completion in 2016 may not be a reality because of a lack of vision and will to pursue this dream project.

While thousands of crores of rupees are spent under the guise of social equity through subsidization route, enough resources are not provided for water conservation measures. Water augmentation projects are conceived, planned, implemented at snail's space and in ordinate delays make these schemes, when they are commissioned, grossly inadequate to meet the emerging demands for water. In stead citizens, especially those belonging to low and middle income groups are unfairly being penalized through coercion to part with their precious earnings to do what the governments were supposed to do. Even if citizens have to pitch in, their involvement will have to be 'collectivized' with 100% participation. As Indians are the most patient people in the world, they will continue to take the water crisis facing the country with stoic silence! And continue to suffer in the process!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/