Graphic Reflections

The above graphic looks at a typical north / north-west Indian city from the perspective of water availability and depicts four scenarios: 1. The current or past scenario wherein rainwater falling over a limited area and collected in nearby lake/s is distributed to the city. Here, water for the entire city is essentially accumulated at one location. 2. An ideal scenario wherein water collection is widespread and each property collects rainwater for domestic use and enough water is also collected in nearby lake/s. So rainwater falling over a much wider area is utilised. 3. This scenario depicts the foolish and alarming reality of today and tomorrow, wherein owing to erratic rainfall and destruction of catchment areas, enough water is not collected in lake/s that supply municipal water, city dwellers ignore precious rainwater and let it go to waste, depending instead on sub-standard water pumped out of deep borewells. Many are forced to buy expensive water the quality of which can be questionable. 4. This scenario depicts what we should be doing or what we will ultimately be forced to do, wherein almost all properties (spread over a much larger area) collect rainwater, use it for domestic purposes and ease off pressure on already stressed lakes and groundwater reserves, which could also be recharged by chanelling excess rainwater back into the ground.

If you are one of those rare Indian city dwellers who collect rainwater in your property, then you will probably know how much water a single rooftop can collect in a large tank from just one day’s good rain, often it can be judiciously used for months! If you are not one of them, it’s time you at least started thinking about it! Usually, rainwater collection system costs less than a deep borewell and in terms of water quality, there can be no comparison to rainwater!

This graphic attempts to illustrate the correlation between urban development process in India and falling availability of water, groundwater in particular. Construction of buildings and infrastructure requires heavy use of water, most of which is pumped out of the ground. Water is then used intensively by people who reside / work in the buildings with little or no attempt to recharge the groundwater or to harvest or store rainwater. Moreover, nearby lakes or ponds that are some of the most efficient means of recharging groundwater, are filled up and the ‘new’ land used for more buildings. Once the groundwater depletes or becomes unfit for consumption, many residents are forced to leave and those who stay have to buy expensive commercial water and in many cases the value and usefulness of ‘developed’ properties declines. If you look at the current urban development trend in India from the perspective of water (the liquid critical for sustenance of life), that it is about short-term gains and long-term loss is not difficult to see..

This typographical graphic tries to portray the irony of water. The clear liquid that is essential to all known forms of life, that constitutes 60% weight of the human body and covers approximately 71% area of our planet is getting scarce by the day. Scarcity of fresh water has got less to do with increase in demand and more to do with careless use, poor water management, little or no effort to harvest rain water, destruction of wetlands, pollution of rivers and destruction of forest lands. Its incredible how even with rising water shortages all over India we continue to take its availability for granted…