Water Security Essay

COMPARATIVE LIMNOLOGICAL STUDIES IN MYSURU CITY

Shiva Kumar D1, Abhilash M R1, Nagaraju A2, Smitha N3 and Shivalingaiah2

1 Department of Studies in Environmental Science, University of Mysore, Manasagangothri, Mysuru-570006, India

2 Department of Post Graduate Botany, Maharani’s Science College for Women, Mysuru-570005, India

3Department of Studies in Botany, University of Mysore, Manasagangothri, Mysuru-570006, India

*Corresponding author Email: [e-mail]

Abstract

Water security is emerging as an important and imperative issue for India. Many Indian cities are experiencing moderate to severe water shortages due to understood effects of industrialization and urbanization. These shortages would be further provoked

However, with the growing pace of urbanization and rapid increase of economy. Water is one of the important natural resources of the planet earth and essential for the survival of all forms of life. Water is one of the greatest looming commodities of the 21st century. It underpins all aspects of human society, from ecology to agriculture to industry and it has no known substitutes. An appreciable part of it gets lodged in snowcaps and natural lakes and is subsequently utilizable, in case of the former through snowmelt reaching a river system. A sizeable part is retained in surface soils and used up through evapo-transpiration for biomass generation. Another part seeps into the ground feeding natural aquifers. A major part appears in the river system downstream and is drained into seas, unless captured in man-made storages or artificially diverted from natural courses. Water is recycled continuously through transpiration and evaporation from land, river systems and oceans, besides precipitation through condensation, rain and snow. Water on the earth is in motion through the hydrological cycle. The utilization of water for most of the users i.e. humans, animals or plants involve movement of water. The conflict between the growing human population and the unchanging supply of freshwater has already started and may get worse by the years to come. Around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world 's population, live in areas of physical scarcity and 500 million people are approaching this situation. Another 1.6 billion people or almost one quarter of the world 's population, are facing economic water shortage (where countries lack the necessary infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers). Water use is growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, and, although there is no