Despite several reports which had people standing in queues to get water from the tankers, it took us the satellite image of the shrinking Chennai water reservoirs to understand the magnitude of the water crisis Chennai has been going through.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 Satellite Image/Maxar Technologies via AP
In fact, Chennai is just in news, majority of the cities in India are facing acute water crisis and there have been reports from several government and non-government organisations that majority of the big Indian cities are on the verge of running out of groundwater.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 Satellite Image/Maxar Technologies via AP?
But losing hope is no solution as there are examples where the cities have found solution to the water crisis, these cities were once reeling under.
Here are some of the measures taken by cities across the world to get out of the water crisis:
Germany¡¯s capital Berlin doesn¡¯t use surface water at all and it has been doing so by managing its water resources for over a century now. Berlin receives just 600 mm of annual rainfall, but what it has been doing different is implementing ground water recharge techniques such as bank filtration? in order to increase drinking water production and the city has been doing it since 1890s.?
PTI
In bank filtration process, in order to use it as drinking water, the water is passed? through the banks of a river or lake? and then drawn off by extraction wells located at a certain distance from the water body. This helps in purifying the water for drinking without extracting much of the groundwater.?
The drought between 1997-2009 forces the city of Melbourne to contain its water demand, and thus, the city implemented residential and? industrial water conservation programmes. The government set a target to recycle 20 per cent of city water by 2010.
PTI
In 2001 and in subsequent years of 2002 and 2003, the pumping of water from aquifer at Werribee, the suburb of the city was imposed and stricter punishments were announced for the households in 2006-07. The city used recycled water for farming instead of surface water apart from deciding to build desalination plant and a north-south pipeline and by 2008, the city achieved the target of recycling 20 percent of the city water in 2008, two years before the schedule. In 2012, the government further restricted the usage of water for industrial and residential gardens and also banned fountains.
The island city-state doesn¡¯t have any aquifer or lake to catch the rainfall and the city has a high density of population which eventually means high demand for water. In 1972, the Prime Minister¡¯s office set up a water planning unit and wrote a Water Master Plan in order to develop a blue print of the water management.?
The blue print paved for the four step water plan to take of the water demand of the city and the four steps were known as Four National Taps: imported water (from Malaysia), reused water known as NEWater, water from local catchment areas; and desalinated water.
AP
The water management in Singapore has been so good that the city is expected to 50 percent? of water demand of the city by 2060 and 30 percent of the demand will get taken care of desalination.?
Singapore is so serious for water conservation that it has reduced water loss due to leaks to just 5 percent which was among the lowest in 2016. The city has all water connection which are legal and metered and therefore people pay for the water they use. This city uses water efficient taps, washing machines and even water efficient urinal.?
In 2014 and 2015, the 96 million shade balls were released into Los Angeles Reservoir in order to slow the evaporation process which eventually resulted in water conservation. The shade balls covered the surface of the reservoir and reflected the rays from the sun back into atmosphere.?
PTI
Much like Singapore, Qingdao is a city with high population with 9 million people and therefore, the city has a high water demand. On the lines of Singapore, the Chinese city has also constructed a massive desalination plant that? produces water for the city and the city follows Singapore? uses reverse osmosis to filter? ocean water by separating the salt content? along with other impurities.
(With Down To Earth and?smartcitiesdive.com inputs)