The future of fresh water

The resource of fresh water is becoming scare with each passing year. The future of fresh water is becoming a dire question mark. One out of nine people in the world doesn't have access to fresh water. The water borne diseases is also on the raise and takes toll on many peoples life. Many rural villages in the developing nations face water crisis for local domestic usage and for agriculture. They depend on the ground water, rivers and rain. The climate change has radicalized the patterns of rain and continue to disrupt the fresh water water resource. At this rate, water will become more scarce and costly. Everything associated with the water as an input including all agricultural harvests will directly be affected. Many technologies are being researched and grown to cater to these needs and to feed billions of thirsty mouths in the future.

Every drop counts (Water Drop by Gerlos CC BY-ND 2.0)

Rain water Harvesting

The simplest way to conserve and regenerate the ground water which is the major source of water for many people is to store the rainwater. The existing structure without any big change can be utilized to do rainwater harvesting. The routing of the water from the terrace to a nearest location near a bore-well or normal well is the first step. Then the water is filtered using the bed of big pebbles and layers of finer soils. In my house, we set up rain water harvesting upon the mandate by the Government and the water in the well is pretty much maintained for a year with just a dozen of rainfall. The nature does all the work for us by evaporating the water from the sea and bringing up-to our roof top. It is our gratefulness to receive it open hands and thankful heart and to store it for future use.

Water from Air

In some places with no ground water, it is better to use the water from air technologies. These technologies are costly and use electricity to condense the humidity in the atmosphere to water. They add minerals to the condensed water to make it portable. It is used by the US military and the highest efficient commercial devices are made by Israel technological companies. It works great in high humidity places. Recently. a desiccant based technology is developed by a Bangalore based startup Uravu to collect water from air. There are also few teams that won the google X-prize for water abundance by creating water at less than a few cents per liter.

Space technology

The International space station hosting a bunch of astronauts needs regular water supply to live there. It is a huge cost to transport water from earth surface to the space station. So, what they do is they recycle all the waste including the air, breath from astronaut, sweat and urine into drinking water. It sounds really crazy, but many astronauts report that it tastes like bottle water. They use highly efficient  filtration system to do this and generate about 13 liters of water per day. These space technologies create a self-sustaining ecosystem that circulates water just like the earth as a whole. If these technologies are made cheaper and accessible to general public, then it would solve major water crisis.

So, the next time you throw a half emptied water bottle, just remember that in the future it can be somebody recycled urine by not conserving water you have now. The conservation of fresh water is becoming a regular need for us. We can only appreciate water when it is scares. It is better to reduce your water consumption, like drink water only if you are thirsty, In my house, the waste water from cleaning the clothes is used for flushing the toilet, the water is reused. The water from taking bath if natural soaps are used for bathing can be used for gardens. We use nearly 10 liters of water per bath, if that goes into the garden to grow useful fruits and vegetables, it would be very useful for our families and the world as a whole.