Water Report

Water is the most critical natural resource that needs to be managed well. The UN-Water monitors the world’s freshwater resources and publishes the related reports on a regular basis. The UN water is a United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for all fresh water related matters. One of the periodic reports that are published on the behalf of UN-water is World Water Development Report (WWDR) which is published every 3 years and is coordinated by the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP).

The World Water Development Report (WWDR) 2018 focuses on the potential of the Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). The NBS uses natural methods to save water and boost its availability. Nature-based solutions are crucial in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

What is 2030 Agenda?

The UN general assembly adopted the 2030 Development Agenda, in the year 2015. This agenda consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and 169 targets.

To achieve 2030 Agenda, Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 has been launched by UN-Water. SDG 6 is Clean water and Sanitation. The main goal of SDG 6 is to provide clean and safe drinking water to everyone along with proper hygiene. For this, the entire water cycle must be taken into consideration as one of the factors that can cause changes in the availability of fresh water is the climatic changes.

SDG 6 Integrated Monitoring Indicators and targets includes;

• Drinking Water
• Sanitation and Hygiene
• Wastewater Treatment
• Water Quality
• Water use efficiency
• Water Stress
• Water Resources Management
• Transboundary Cooperation
• Water-related ecosystem

World Water Development Report 2018:

World Water Development Report is an annual report that deals with various issues related to water and provides solutions to deal with these issues. For previous year reports visit, www.unwater.org.

This year’s (2018) report deals with Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for water. Nature based solutions manage water with the help of natural processes that help in conserving our ecosystem.

Need for Nature-Based Solutions:

The water cycle is directly related to the ecosystems and is Nature-based. Some examples that directly influence water include;

Vegetation and soil:

Plants occupy a large percentage of the earth’s land and as we know, water plays an important part in the growth of a plant. The main function of a plant is transpiration, that is, a process in which the water moves throughout the plant and as this process absorbs water from the soil, it also affects the groundwater. Apart from this, the soil structure plays an important role as the amount of water that percolates into the ground or evaporates depends on it.

Wetland:

Wetlands include rivers and lakes. These play important roles in the hydrological process like evaporation, quality of water and its contribution to and from ground

NBS for water Availability:

The demand for water is steadily growing at the rate of 1% per year and is expected to grow further with the increase in population and other economic development. According to World agriculture towards 2030/2050, the demand for food (agriculture) and energy (electricity) by the year 2050 is expected to increase by 60% and 80% respectively.

In comparison to this, the water that is available to us is constant and limited. The main aim of NBS is to manage the availability of the water by conserving the ecosystem or by opting for natural structural and physical changes like water harvesting.

NBS approaches for water availability include,

• Improving the soil structure by using natural manure and compost that enhances the water percolation into the soil.
• Minimum disturbance of the soil and maintaining a degree of permanent soil cover.
• Improving the vegetative cover by planting grasses and trees that can help in various ways like preventing soil erosion, improving soil structure, etc.
• Encouraging Agroforestry, that is, along with pastures or agricultural crops, trees are also grown.
• Water Harvesting: Collecting of rainwater.
• Gully Control: This is addressed where land rehabilitation is necessary in case of severe soil erosion.
• In urban areas, addressing water availability involves efficiently managing the water catchment areas that supply water to the urban areas along with improved recycling of the water.

NBS for Water Quality:

We can say that the water availability and water quality are related in the sense that if the quality of water is good, it can be reused, thus more water is available to us.

Maintaining the water quality is extremely important as the health of human as well as that of the ecosystem depends on that. Some of the most common examples of water pollutants include pesticides from agriculture, industrial wastewater, household chemicals, etc.

NBS for improving water quality include;

1)Protecting the source:

This means taking care of how the water at the source is collected and stored. This can also reduce the treatment cost of the water apart from maintaining the quality. Also, natural sources such as grasslands, forests, and wetlands, play a significant role when it comes to maintaining the water quality. For example, they can regulate the flow of water, prevent soil erosion, etc.

2) Agriculture and water quality:

As stated in the World Water Development Report 2018, agriculture can affect water quality in two ways, Point and Non-Point pollution.
      a. Point pollution means untreated water form agricultural waste.
      b. Non-point pollution is a result of two interrelated causes, first, extra use of agrochemical that either seeps into the groundwater or mixes with the surface water and second, increased plowing that eventually degrades the quality of the soil giving rise to the first cause, that is an increase in the use of fertilizer.

For this, various natural measures are taken such as implementing tree buffers, field borders, buffer strips, etc along the edges of the lakes or rivers, that serves as a barrier between the agriculture land and the water resource. This barrier helps in preventing the runoff water containing agrochemicals from the agricultural land to enter the river.

Another measure is Ecohydrology, that mainly focuses on the interaction between biota and hydrology.
Some other measures include wetlands, vegetative waterways, water and sediments control basins, etc.

3)Human settlement and water quality:

With the growing awareness of water, urban planning includes green buildings with proper care taken for water and wastewater. Apart from this, the source of water to the urban settlement is also taken care of.

4)Industries and water quality:

Pollutants from the industries may mix with water and cause serious harm. One of the Nature-Based solutions for industrial wastewater includes constructing wetlands. These wetlands help in treating agriculture or industrial waste, sewage, stormwater, etc. Wetlands are either natural or constructed. Some of the basic uses of the wetlands include purification of water, groundwater Restock, flood control, storm protection, etc.

Conclusion:

We must take some strong steps towards obtaining a sustainable nature. Taking care of water availability and water quality helps the ecosystem and biodiversity to prosper. Natural solutions are more cost effective as compared to alternative solutions for water management.