Associate Professor & Head

Department of Zoology

S.B.K. Govt. College

 Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India 

Introduction
Water is an essential commodity to mankind. It not only plays an important role in life processes, but also in balancing the ecosystem. Besides the domestic purposes, water is now used for various purposes like irrigation, industrial hydropower generation agriculture etc. In addition to the above uses water bodies are also increasingly being used as receptacles for the sewage, sludge and industrial wastes. River being the major source of fresh water supply, the management and conservation of these resources require utmost attention. The rational utilization of water resources and its proper management with long term strategies are likely to play an important role in avoiding the water quality degradation and its consequences. Such a concerning aspect has been identified so late that this problem in just five to ten years can be aggravated to dangerous situations if proper attention is not paid in time. It is an inter-disciplinary approach to resource conservation and recycling and it acts as a regulatory force on industry in resource exploitation and resource wasting. The central theme of environmental management is thus the reduction or minimization of the impact of human activities on the physical and ecological environment. It is an endeavour to avoid to over use, mis-use and abuse of the resources in the environment. The resource i.e. the environment must be optimally managed without usually depleting or degrading it. It is aimed at protecting the resource or environment for sustaining development. The past has shown the consequences of the mismanagement of the environmental resources, be it forest, stream, land or coast. If the environmental elements are eroded and polluted, as present trends show, a stage may be reached when life as we know it on the earth, may become extinct.

Water as a Resource

There are various resources of water as below -

1. Rainwater.
2. Groundwater – This includes water bodies like Wells and Springs.
3. Surface water – This includes different water bodies like Reservoirs, Rivers, Streams, Ponds, Lakes and Tanks.
4. Glaciers

Importance of Water

We all need water for different daily activities including:

1. Domestic Purposes include bathing, cleaning, cooking, drinking, and washing.
2. Agricultural applications include irrigation, farming, gardening, and frost control.
3. Other Industrial Applications.

Apart from this, we drink water to:

1. Stay hydrated
2. Lubricate Joints
3. Regulate the body’s temperature
4. Transport nutrients and other waste in the body.
5. Balance the loss of water from the digestive tract and body tissues.

Cancerous Substances in Drinking Water

Within past 15 years the utilization of short term test such as the Ames salmonella/ microsomes reversion assay has revealed the present of genetically active substances in treated water and row water supplies. Since it is held that mutagenic substances are potential carcinogens and since vast majority of people consume treated water. This finding may be the first step in the discovery of one source of human cancer. The chlorination process itself enhances the mutagenicity of most waters.

Vital Role of Water In Development

Water has always been an important ingredient for development. It was one of the main reasons why major centres of civilization in the past developed along the banks of important rivers like the Nile, Indus, Tigris and Euphrates. The role of water in the overall development of countries becomes even more important during the last decade. It has been established that proper water control is essential not only for further agriculture expansion but also to increase the yield. Secondly steadily increasing prices of fossil fuels, specially oil. Hence more attention on the development of hydroelectric power, a renewable resource. Fourth, U.N. conference on Human settlement and on water emphasized the plight of rural people in developing countries who do not have access to safe drinking water. On the recommendation of the water conference, the decade 1981-1990 has been declared the International water supply and Sanitation decade by the Genera! Assembly of U.N.O. Fifth, pollution of inland and coastal bodies and the ocean became of increasing national and international concern. Finally, navigation and water based recreation became important issues in some countries. All these factors made the development and control of water resources an urgent necessity for nearly all countries. However, there is no doubt that many have contributed to unanticipated adverse environmental effects, some of which could have been eliminated and then significantly reduced in magnitude by using appropriate planning process. Sometimes, a water-development project is hailed as a technological triumph by engineer and welcomed by economists but seriously questioned by environmentalists and socialists. This is largely due to lack of adequate inter-disciplinary interactions during planning process. Lack of public participation during the planning and construction phases further complicates the situation.

Aquatic Status of Ecosystem and Management In Developing Countries

Most developing countries have been blessed with large resources of water but not available in sufficient quantities for human consumption as well as for industrial and agricultural development. They have therefore, embarked in recent years on numerous large scale water resources development programme. Unfortunately they have been concentrating on the core of the problem, namely the provision of water, over looking the crucial environmental aspects involved in the process. As a result domestic water supplies have been constructed without due attention to the waste water disposal, thus causing sever contamination of the water resources. The same refers to industrial waste waters that have become major stream pollutant. And in agricultural development, water resources harnessed for irrigation and power supply have caused in addition to increase in food production - the spread of major water borne diseases such as malaria, bilharzia and river blindness, by the creation of vast uncontrolled new breeding sites for the vectors of these diseases.

Environmental management in a relatively new and sophisticated forum to describe a very old concept i.e. an organised way to solve problems, relating to the natural environment. A more effective environmental management approach includes the following elements -

(1) A comprehensive assessment of existing environmental conditions as well as determination of social, economic, political and educational realities and potential in a country.

(2) A visionary but realistic plan for correcting existing problem and attenuating future problems,

(3) An orderly and timely approach for implementing elements of the plan and

(4) An effective means of monitoring the progress of and for enforcing corrective measures. Environmental quality can also be achieved and maintained if the pollutant load generated and distributed by human being is held without the assimilative capacity of nature. This can be achieved by minimizing pollutant production by process control in industry and by consumer efficiency and the use of end of pipe technologies to modify, reduce in volume or better distribution in environment of the contaminant that have been generated. The greatest threat to humanity, short of nuclear calamity is from environmental contamination which also include inadequate, unreliable and unsafe water supply system. Today Indian water supply system faces varied and critical problems varying from floods to shortage.

Water Quality

Water is required for four primary consumptive uses i.e. irrigation, power production, domestic and industrial. By 2000 A.D. country is likely to use more half of the total available water. Water quality deteriorates due to repeated use. In industrial cities, the volume of industrial liquid waste is about 8 to 16% of the total waste.

The basic fact is that the stupendous volume of waste water generated in big cities requires to be disposed of hygienically. Progress in urban sewerage is distressing while the sewage treatment is extremely slow. Only few homes are partly sewered covering about 26% of urban population.

The return water from each of four consumptive use brings with it a host of pollutants of which many are allien to the environment where they get discharged. On the one hand the country is on the verge of withdrawing more than half of utilisable water while on the other, polluted water after use are getting discharged in the rivers, Seas. The situation warrants an immediate evolution of better water quality management through rigorous nationwide pollution control enforcement.

It is realised that no significant improvement of the country's aquatic environment is possible as long as the cities continue to pour their untreated waste water into the natural water courses. It is due to the absence of infrastructural facilities such as adequate collection, treatment and disposal of liquid and solid wastes, facility of funds assigning low priority to the sewarage and sewage treatment facilities.

Water Quality Management

It involves pollution control at Urban settlement sources. More than three-fourth of industrial production of country is generated from within 12 metropolitan cities. The main points included in this are : (1) Pattern of sewage collection system and sewage regulation. (2) Pollution control at Industrial Source (3) Protection of drinking water source. Coastal management is necessary for fish harvesting and recreational purposes. Such areas should not be allowed to be contaminated by industries.

Theme of Environmental Management

(1) Environmental planning. (2) Environmental status evaluation. (3) Environmental impact assessment. (4) Environmental legislation and administration. As in economic planning, in environmental planning and decision making also, the crux is in balancing probable gains against potential losses. In the former case, it is money, and in the later, it is life and death of a species kind or a system.

Environmental Impact Assessment

It is procedure for bringing out the potential effects of human activities on environmental system. To be fully effective EIA must identify and evaluate both beneficial and adverse environmental impacts of the developmental project.

Environmental Legislations

Include - Land use, water rights, pollution control and abatement, forest protection, wild life conservation, town planning, industrial licensing, regulation concerning toxic chemicals manufacture, formulation, sales, uses and disposal, food contamination and adulteration, mining bases, planting plants and organisms and so on. Legislation alone is not enough but motivation and education regarding the environment are equally important.

Environmental Management Information Systems

Information data must be comprehensive, quick-responsive and wide ranging for evaluating adequate and appropriate data and information to be made available readily to vision maker.

Conclusion

Indian Govt. has taken up the cleaning of river Ganga in a big way and the target has been achieved to some extent but not fully cleaned. The pollution control department should be strict to implement all the rules and regulations against the industrialist and general public who break the law and pollute the environment at large extent.

Several Govt. of states of India and Govt. of India have taken several remedies to conserve the water resources. Karnataka, which has the largest swathe of drought-prone land in the country next only to Rajasthan, is set to launch a major water conservation scheme titled ' Jalamrutha', which focuses on drought-proofing measures, including protection and rejuvenation of water bodies.

Water conservation initiatives are taken up by the Central Government on continuous basis and are covered under various schemes and programmers such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Atal Bhujal Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban.

As individuals, groups and communities, let us all wake up before it is too late and not only understand what rainwater harvesting is all about but also implement measures to harvest rainwater in our houses and flat complexes and put it into the soil for our subsequent use.Rajasthan Police Housing & Construction Corporation Limited (a Government of Rajasthan undertaking) has taken a decision to implement rain water harvesting in all its.