1. Awareness
Welcome
By
K.Harshini Udhra
Session about Water
Scarcity

4. What is water scarcity?
• If the next world war
happens; it may well be
triggered by water scarcity
across the continents. It has
been already found that the
third of the world is
suffering from water
shortages. Increasing
demand for water with
rapidly growing rate of
population, inadequate
rainfall, uncontrolled use of
water and climate change
are some of the reasons
behind it.
• The word water scarcity
describes the relationship
between demand for water
and its availability. Water
scarcity can be determined
as both the availability of
water and its consumption
patterns

5. Water shortage increases fear of human-animal
conflict
•
•
•
•
With the monsoon continuing to play truant,
water sources inside the Mudumalai and
Anamalai Tiger Reserves may dry up
With the frequent appearance of elephants
in some parts of the Nilgiris like Pandalur
near Gudalur and Nonsuch below Coonoor
becoming a cause for worry due to water
shortage in the jungles stated to be among
the contributory factors, speculation over the
situation in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve
(MTR) near here has, of late, become rife in
various parts of the Nilgiris.
The fear is that if the Southwest Monsoon
continues to play truant, water sources may
dry up inside the MTR and would lead to an
escalation in the human-elephant conflict.
Frequent visitors to the MTR told the Hindu
that in many of the water sources, the
storage was not satisfactory. Normally at this
time of the year, they should be overflowing.

6. Papanasam dam looking like a small irrigation pond
since the storage level has come down to a dismal level
•
•
As the district, blessed with the
Western Ghats and the Tamiraparani
and its tributaries originating in the
mountain ranges, has failed to
experience a good rainfall even
during the southwest and northeast
monsoons ever since 2009, storage
level in the major reservoirs presents
a disturbing picture.
The over-dependence on the dams
and also on the river for drinking and
irrigation requirements has badly
depleted the storage level in the
reservoirs as only the catchment
areas alone have experienced some
precipitation during the past four
years while there was literally no rain
in the plains, leaving all 1,528 rainfed tanks across the district almost
dry

7. Rain Fall Data for Tirunelveli

8. Many parts of Periya Semur municipality in Erode
district continue to reel under acute water scarcity.
• Water scarcity is a perennial
problem for the residents of
Periya Semur
• The frequency of water supply
stretches from a minimum of
two days to 10 days in many
areas. A few parts are supplied
with water once in 15 days.
People appealed to the district
administration to intervene in
the issue and instruct the
municipal authorities to
ensure adequate supply of
drinking water to all
residential areas in Periya
Semur

9. Water shortage in Ramnad tail-end areas
•
•
•
Though the recently commissioned Cauvery
water supply scheme has solved the drinking
water crisis to a great extent in the district,
several tail-end areas, particularly in and
around Thondi, have been experiencing
water shortage, owing to a problem in supply
link in different areas and power supply
crisis.
It is said that except a few villages, water
supply has been maintained steadily in
Paramakudi and Ramanathapuram
peripheries. As per the arrangements,
Cauvery water is supplied along with the
local water schemes in a few villages in order
to ensure an optimum supply.
However, the problem over continuous water
supply in Thondi and S.P. Pattinam areas
continues to be a daunting task for the
officials. There were reports that there was
no consistency and regular schedule in
supplying Cauvery water to these areas. The
repeated review meetings by officials only
had a marginal result.

10. No water will be released to Tamil
Nadu: Jagadish Shettar
•
•
•
•
•
While chief minister Jagadish Shettar walked out of
the meeting after registering a protest over the
ruling, while Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa
said her state would approach the Supreme Court
to get its due. "The obligation to release 10,000
cusecs per day upto 20.09.2012 will be adhered to,"
he said.
Following are the arguments of Karnataka
expressing why water cannot be released:
*Further releases beyond Sept 20 will sacrifice the
basic drinking water requirements and protection of
standing crops of farmers of Karnataka. This will
cause irreparable injury to the State of Karnataka
*Subsequent to the failure of the rainfall to an
extent of 43% in the basin, the inflows into our
reservoirs have drastically dwindled resulting in a
shortage of 48% till the end of August 2012.
*Against the normal flow of about 217 tmc, the
flow into our reservoirs is only 102 tmc till the end
of August.
*Flows into KRS (Krishna Raja Sagar) stem is
curtailed to about 55% and that in Kabini stem to
34% of the normal at the end of August, 2012 which
reflects the severity of the deficit monsoon. This
year is the worst affected year in the last 40 years in
terms of rainfall.

11. Coimbatore district gets lowest rainfall in SW
Monsoon, pins hopes on NE Monsoon
•
•
•
The exiting South West Monsoon that
proved to be a bundle of
disappointment has left the district
with a lowest ever rainfall of 73.2 mm
in the last seven years. This has
resulted in the city and district pinning
hopes on North East Monsoon which
has showed signs of setting in any
time.
The Metrological Department sources
said that the rainfall on October 9 and
15 were just showers of the exiting
South West Monsoon while North East
was just setting in.
However, there had been a meagre
benefit out of the two recent
downpours with reservoirs recording
some improvement in storage (see
graphics).

12. Drinking water crisis looms as rains play hideand-seek in Kerala
• THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The
drinking water supply network in
Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam
cities and their suburbs are on
the verge of grinding to a halt as
the water levels in the Peppara
dam and Sasthamkotta Lake have
almost hit rock bottom.
• "We foresee a major water supply
crisis in Thiruvananthapuram and
Kollam, if the rains continue to
elude the two districts for long.
With the water available now, we
will not be able to supply water
beyond a month," said Kerala
Water Authority chief engineer
(south region), K P Krishna Kumar.

13. Vaigai Dam
• The Vaigai Dam is built across
the Vaigai River near Andipatti,
in the Theni district of Tamil
Nadu, southern India. It
provides water for irrigation
for the Madurai district and
the Dindigul district as well as
drinking water to Madurai and
Andipatti.[1] Near the dam, the
Government of Tamil Nadu has
constructed an Agricultural
Research Station for
researching the growing of a
variety of crops, including rice,
sorghum, blackgram, cowpea
and cotton

14. Cauvery row: Farmers observe bandh in Tamil Nadu's
delta districts
•
Life came to a standstill in the delta
districts of Tamil Nadu, including
Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and
Tiruvarur, as farmers observed a
bandh over the Cauvery water crisis
today. The protest comes a day after
neighbouring state Karnataka began
releasing 10,000 cusecs of water to
Tamil Nadu for four days as directed
by the Supreme Court.
Shops remained closed in the areas
as agitating farmers blocked trains
and buses as a mark of protest. They
have demanded the Supreme Court
to ensure the farmers receive
adequate water to save the standing
paddy crop in 14 lakh acres.

15. Hogenakkal Falls
•
•
The word Hogenakal is formed of two
Kannada words hoge and kal. When
the water falls on the rocks it appears
as if hoge (smoke) is emanating from
the top of the kal (rock) because of
the force of the water, hence
Hogenakkal (smoking rocks).[11] It is
also called as Marikottayam by the
people of Tamil Nadu.[12]
Hogenakal Falls is the location for the
Hogenakkal Integrated Drinking
Water Project proposed by the Tamil
Nadu Government. The objective of
this project is to provide safe drinking
water to the urban and rural areas in
Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts.

16. Mumbai faces serious water shortage
•
Mumbai is likely to see a serious water
shortage with poor monsoon rains rapidly
bringing down water levels in the six lakes
that feed the city.
•
A worried Brihanmumbai Municipal Corp
(BMC), Mumbai's civic body, has extended
the 10 percent water cut in supply till July 31.
"There is not much rainfall in catchment
areas," lamented Additional Municipal
Commissioner Rajiv Jalota.
According to official estimates, Mumbai
needs around 3,450 million litres of water a
day.
•
•
•
The BMC now supplies 3,087 million litres to
households.
The lakes collectively must have at least
12.54 million litres every year. The present
collective stock is approximately 2.12 million
litres as against 4.24 million litres a year ago.

17. Manimuthar dam water released for
irrigation
•
•
•
The district started getting good
rainfall while dry spell continued in
the catchment areas of Manimuthar
and Papanasam dams much to the
disappointment of the district
administration and the farmers here.
Consequently, the poor inflow into
the dams did not show any significant
increase in its level
Places such as Sengalthaeri Manjolai,
Kuthiraivetti, Kaakkaachi and Upper
Gothaiyar experienced a good rainfall
on Sunday to bring a decent inflow of
1,954 cusecs into Manimuthar dam
to take the water level in the dam,
with the permissible level of 118 feet,
from 44.83 feet to 50.75 feet only.

18. Siruvani Waterfalls
•
The Siruvani falls and dam is situated
some 37 kilometers to the west of
Coimbatore city in the Western
Ghats. The river is very much familiar
and it is well-known for its tasty
water. This Siruvani water falls is the
chief source to supply water to
Coimbatore city. With an outstanding
panoramic view, both the dam and
water falls is extremely beautiful and
breathe taking. The dam is interlinked
by tunnels and canals for confining
Aliyar, Parambikulam, Nirar, Sholiyar,
Thunakadavu, Palar, Thekadi rivers
for the purpose of generating power
and irrigation.

19. Simple & cheap solution to India's grave water crisis:
Desalination plant/Waste water recycling
• Minjur Desalination
Plant, Tamil Nadu, India
•
Minjur Desalination Plant, Tamil Nadu, India
• Desalination plant — removing
salt from seawater to make fresh
water — is increasingly catching
the fancy of administrators. Two
of India's most industrialised
states, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat,
are the keenest among the lot.
• Treating Waste Water
Countries the world over, while
being bullish about desalination,
are equally bullish about other
means, notably waste water
recycling. Not India. Only about
31% of municipal wastewater can
be recycled. That would be more
than 75% in China