Lesson 3 Water 2

Impact now - over-extraction of
Groundwater
India - Water deficit just over 200 Billion cubic meters per year
– Water tables dropping by 0.7 m per year in some areas
– Salt invasion of coastal aquifers - over-pumping is contaminating drinking water
Bangladesh - During dry season, water tables often drop below tube-well suction levels
Pakistan - Groundwater pumping exceeds recharge by 27%
China - Water deficit of 30 Billion cubic meters per year
– Water tables dropping by 1 - 1.5 m per year in northern and central plains
USA - Groundwater over-pumping at a rate of 1.6 Billion cubic meters per year (15% of
annual use) in major food and vegetable producing areas
Saudi Arabia - 85% of water demand met by mining non-renewable groundwater
– Current water debt around 6 Billion cubic meters per year
– Much of the rest by using salt water - desalination
North Africa - Depletion at a rate of 10 Billion cubic meters per year, 40% of which occurs
in Libya...
1
Schemes to put water where it isn’t
Libya - “Great Man-Made River Project”
– $25 billion scheme launched in 1991
– Water pumped from desert aquifers
in the South at a planned rate of 2.2
Billion cubic meters per year; but
wells may be dry within 40-60 years
– Transported 1,500 km North in 4,000
km of 4m diameter concrete pipe
– 80% destined for agriculture
(See also California, and Las Vegas!)
2
Why over-abstraction happens
• Few governments have rules or regulations to ensure that ‘fossil aquifers’
are exploited at a sustainable rate
• Some governments effectively encourage groundwater depletion:
– India
• Farmers pay flat fee for electricity, so the cost of pumping
groundwater is cheap and does not provide any incentive to
introduce methods to allow pumping to be reduced
– Texas
• Irrigators receive a ‘depletion allowance’ which allows them to claim
and adjustment for the value of the depleted water on their income
tax
• Groundwater use is rarely monitored, much less regulated, so no real limits
to number of users or the quantity of resource taken by each user.
3
Agricultural water impact - Cotton
• To produce
1kg of cotton
requires
17,000 litres
of irrigation
water
4
The Aral Sea story
• Once the world’s fourth
largest inland body of
water
• 7.9 million hectares
irrigated and used for
cotton production
• By 1990 combined river
inflow was reduced to
13% of pre-1960 flow
• The Sea has lost half its
area and three-quarters of
its volume in 40 years
5
The social & environmental tragedy
of the Aral Sea
• Fishing industry that supported 60,000 jobs and produced 44,000
tonnes a year in the 1950s has disappeared
• Each year, 100 million tonnes of toxic dust-salt mixture are blown
by the wind from the dry seabed and deposited on surrounding
farmland, killing crops
6
Pollution sources
• Rural Drainage • Urban Drainage
(mainly ‘diffuse’) (mainly ‘point source’)
Nitrates (& phosphates) ‘Storm overflows’ -from
from fertilisers ‘combined’ sewer systems
Soil particles from Sewage treatment effluents
ploughed fields
Industrial treatment effluents
Organic waste - slurries
Hydrocarbons & other
and silage from farms
chemicals from paved areas
Pesticides from fields
7
Urbanisation impacts - generates
higher flooding flows and higher
domestic and industrial water use
• Increasing urbanisation
increases paved area and
run-off proportion - and hence
increased flow rates and flood
volumes
• Rural people moving to
cities find they need more
water for washing, waste
disposal and industrial use
8
Climate Change
- what changes can we expect?
• rising temperatures
• rising evaporation
• changed rainfall
patterns
• rising sea-level
• increased storm
frequency/intensity
• more flooding
• new crop patterns
9
Summary of impact of climate change
- increased extreme events
• Abstraction - significant shifts in probability patterns of

droughts: ~ 5 -10% reduction in ‘safe yields’ for water
abstraction (UK)
• Flooding - impact >>> just proportional to rainfall
increase;
• Pollution - heavier rains flush more chemicals and soil
from agricultural land, and drive more into groundwater;
health risk where sewage mixed with floodwater
10
Uncertainties
Many uncertainties exist:
– Global climate models
– Regional climate impacts
– Demographic estimates
– Energy forecasting
– Mitigation/Adaptation efforts
“It is vital that uncertainties not be used to

delay or avoid taking certain kinds of
actions now.”
11
Summary on Climate Change
• The good news is that where climatic changes are minor or where other
factors dominate, the impacts on our water resources may be low. In
some regions and for some issues, climatic changes may even reduce the
risks imposed by growing populations, industrialization, and land-use
changes.
• The bad news is that a growing body of evidence suggests that our water
resources are very sensitive to both climate and to how we choose to
manage our water systems.
• In many cases and in many locations, there is compelling scientific
evidence that climatic changes will pose serious challenges to our water
systems. (Peter Gleick, 2001)
12
MEHB523
Introduction To Sustainability Engineering
CASE STUDY:
SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT
13
Case Study-India
• Identify water use in India
• Identify the issues/problems regarding water
availability and use
• Identify the measures that has been taken to
address the problem
• What has been done well and what could be
improved upon?
• What seems to be the biggest challenges of
water sustainability in India?

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Impact now - over-extraction of

• Abstraction - significant shifts in probability patterns of

“It is vital that uncertainties not be used to

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