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- Recently, the Association of Geospatial Industries released a report titled “Potential of Geospatial Technologies for the Water Sector in India”. The report mentions opportunities in the Water sector that can benefit from the use of Geospatial technologies.
- As the severity of the water crisis in India increases every year, central and state government agencies are using a variety of resources to tackle the water crisis. One among them is the adoption of Geospatial technologies.
Important points:
- India has about 17% of the world population, but only about 4% of the world’s freshwater reserves, and is currently facing a severe water challenge.
- Further, total capacity of India’s reservoirs stands at 250 billion cubic meters (bcm), while its total water bearing capacity over the surface is around 320 bcm.
- India receives 3,000 billion cubic metres of water every year through rainfall or other sources such as glaciers; of this, only 8% is collected.
- India fills groundwater aquifers at the rate of 458 bcm per year, while it extracts around 650 bcm of water from the earth.
- 89% of India’s water resources are used for agriculture, out of which 65% is withdrawn from under the ground.
- Thus, one of India’s biggest challenges is to conserve groundwater.
- Water Stress: As per a NITI Aayog report, currently nearly 820 million people in 12 major river basins of India face extreme water stress.
- Adding to the issue of lack of water availability is the issue of water quality.
- Groundwater in one-third of India’s 600 districts is contaminated mainly through fluoride and arsenic.
- Further, there has been a 136% increase in the number of grossly polluting industries between 2011- 2018, according to the State of India’s Environment report, 2019.
Geospatial Technologies:
- Geospatial technologies is a term used to describe the range of modern tools contributing to the geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth and human societies.
- The term ‘geospatial’ refers not to one single technology, but a collection of technologies that help to collect, analyse, store, manage, distribute, integrate, and present geographic information.
- Geospatial technology enables better measurement, management, and maintenance of assets, monitoring of resources and even providing predictive and prescriptive analysis for forecasting and planned interventions.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT
