MAHATMA GLOBAL GATEWAY

(Affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi)

CHAPTER 3: WATER RESOURCES
Important notes

KEYWORDS
⮚ Multipurpose Project – Dam used for many purposes like irrigation, power, etc.
⮚ Rainwater Harvesting – Collecting rainwater for future use.
⮚ Watershed – Area draining water to a common point.
⮚ Inundation – Overflow of water causing floods.
⮚ Groundwater – Water stored underground.
⮚ Water Scarcity – Lack of enough water.
⮚ Irrigation – Supplying water to crops.
⮚ Drought – Long period without rain.
⮚ Dam – Barrier built to hold water.
⮚ Conservation – Saving and using water wisely.

QUESTION AND ANSWERS

1. Explain how water becomes a renewable resource.
ANS: Freshwater is mainly obtained from surface runoff and groundwater that is
continually being renewed and rechanged through the hydrological cycle. All water moves
within the hydrological cycle ensuring that water is a renewable resource.
2. Describe the Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal), including the states and regions it covers,
its objectives, the percentage of water-stressed blocks it targets, and the key behavioral
changes it aims to promote in communities.
ANS: Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal)
Implementation:
Covers 8,220 water-stressed Gram Panchayats.
Implemented in seven states: Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
Coverage:
The selected states represent 37% of India's total water-stressed blocks (over-exploited,
critical, and semi-critical).
Key Focus:
Promotes smart water management practices.
Aims to shift community behavior from water consumption to conservation.
3. How is agriculture responsible for creating stress on water resources? Suggest any one
solution for it.
ANS: Agriculture is responsible for creating stress on water resources in the following
ways:
To facilitate higher food-grain production, water resources are being over-exploited to
expand irrigated areas for dry-season agriculture.
Irrigated agriculture is the largest consumer of water.
Most farmers have their own wells and tube wells on their farms for irrigation to increase
their productivity. This lead to falling groundwater levels, adversely affecting water
availability and food security of the people.
4. Intensive industrialization and urbanization exerted pressure on existing freshwater
resources. Justify the statement with suitable examples.
ANS: Intensive industrialization and urbanization have exerted pressure on existing
freshwater resources:
Post-independent India witnessed intensive industrialization and urbanization.
The ever-increasing number of industries has made matters worse by exerting pressure on
existing freshwater resources.
Industries, apart from being heavy users of water, also require power to run them.
Much of this energy comes from hydroelectric power.
Today, in India hydroelectric power contributes approximately 22% of the total electricity
produced.
Multiplying urban centers with large and dense populations and urban lifestyles has not
only added to water and energy requirements but has further aggravated the problem.
Most of the housing societies or colonies in the cities have their own groundwater
pumping devices, which result in the over-exploitation of fragile water resources.

5. How are multipurpose projects and large dams the cause of social movements?
ANS: Multipurpose projects and large dams are the cause of social movements:
Multi-purpose projects and large dams have been the cause of many new environmental
movements like the ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’ and the ‘Tehri Dam Andolan’.
Resistance to these projects has primarily been due to the large-scale displacement of local
communities.
Local people often had to give up their land, livelihood, and their meager access and
control over resources for the greater good of the nation.
But these local people are not benefited much from these projects. The benefited ones are
the landowners and large farmers, industrialists, and a few urban centers.

6. Who proclaimed dams as the temples of modern India? Why?

ANS: Jawaharlal Nehru proclaimed the dams as the ‘Temples of modern India’ because
⮚ They integrate the development of agriculture and the village economy with rapid
industrialization and growth of the urban economy.
⮚ They provide water for irrigation.
⮚ They provide water for electricity generation
⮚ Provide water supply for domestic and industrial uses.
⮚ Helps in flood control.
⮚ Provide recreation
⮚ Helps in inland navigation.
⮚ Useful for fish breeding.
7. What is the need for rainwater harvesting?
ANS: The need for rainwater harvesting are:
Rainwater harvesting is needed to provide it for agriculture, collect drinking water, irrigate
the fields, and to moisten the soil.
Rainwater harvesting is a viable alternative, both socio-economically and environmentally
to multipurpose projects.
8. What is water scarcity and what are its main causes?
ANS: Water scarcity is the lack of freshwater resources to meet the demands of water
usage within a region.
Main causes of water scarcity:
Water scarcity in most cases is caused by over-exploitation, excessive use, and unequal
access to water among different social groups.
Water scarcity may be an outcome of a large and growing population and consequent
greater demands for water and unequal access to it.
To facilitate higher food-grain production, water resources are being over-exploited to
expand irrigated areas for dry-season agriculture.
Intensive industrialization and urbanization exerted pressure on existing freshwater
resources.
Even if water is sufficiently available to meet the needs of the people, much of it is maybe
polluted by domestic and industrial wastes, chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers used in
agriculture, thus causing water scarcity.
9. What are the broad objectives of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchaee Yojana (PMKSY)?
ANS: Objectives of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchaee Yojana (PMKSY):
Increase Irrigated Area: Make sure every field gets water. ("Har Khet Ko Pani")
Boost Efficiency: Improve water use to avoid wastage.
Promote Technologies: Use methods like drip irrigation ("Per Drop More Crop").
Conservation Practices: Adopt sustainable water-saving practices.
10. Explain the working of underground tanks as a part of the rooftop rainwater harvesting
system practiced in Rajasthan.Or,What do you understand by Palar Pani? How Palar
Pani is collected?
ANS: Rainwater is commonly referred to as Palar Pani in the arid and semi-arid regions
of Rajasthan.
In the semi-arid and arid regions of Rajasthan, particularly in Bikaner, Phalodi, and
Barmer, almost all the houses traditionally had underground tanks for storing drinking
water.
The tanks could be as large as a big room.
The tanks were part of the well-developed rooftop rainwater harvesting system.
They were connected to the sloping roofs of the houses through a pipe.
Rain falling on the rooftops would travel down the pipe and be stored in these
underground tanks.
The first spell of rain was usually not collected as this would clean the roofs and the pipes.
The rainwater from the subsequent showers was then collected.
11. Analyze the importance of rooftop rainwater harvesting in Rajasthan.
ANS: Importance of rooftop rainwater harvesting in Rajasthan:
It was commonly practiced to store drinking water.
The rainwater can be stored in the tanks till the next rainfall, making it an extremely
reliable source of drinking water when all other sources are dried up, particularly in the
summers.
Rainwater (Palar Pani) is considered the purest form of natural water.
Many houses construct underground rooms adjoining the ‘tanks’ to beat the summer heat
as it would keep the room cool.
Some houses still maintain the tanks since they do not like the taste of tap water.
12. Describe any three traditional methods of rainwater harvesting adopted in different
parts of India.
ANS: Traditional methods of rainwater harvesting:
In hill and mountainous regions, people built diversion channels like the ‘guls’ or ‘kuls’ of
the Western Himalayas for agriculture.
‘Rooftop rainwater harvesting’ was commonly practiced to store drinking water,
particularly in Rajasthan.
In the flood plains of Bengal, people developed inundation channels to irrigate their fields.
In semi-arid and arid regions, agricultural fields were converted into rain-fed storage
structures that allowed the water to stand and moisten the soil like the ‘khadins’ in
Jaisalmer and ‘Johads’ in other parts of Rajasthan.
13. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of multi-purpose river valley projects.
ANS: Advantages:
⮚ They provide water for irrigation.
⮚ They provide water for electricity generation
⮚ Provide water supply for domestic and industrial uses.
⮚ Helps in flood control.
⮚ Provide recreation
⮚ Helps in inland navigation.
⮚ Useful for fish breeding.
Disadvantages:
⮚ Regulating and damming of rivers affect their natural flow causing poor sediment
flow and excessive sedimentation at the bottom of the reservoir, resulting in rockier
stream beds and poorer habitats for the rivers’ aquatic life.
⮚ Dams also fragment rivers making it difficult for aquatic fauna to migrate,
especially for spawning.
⮚ The dams have triggered floods due to sedimentation in the reservoir and the release
of excess water during heavy rains.
⮚ Multipurpose projects induced earthquakes, caused water-borne diseases, and pests,
and lead to pollution resulting from excessive use of water.
⮚ Irrigation has changed the cropping pattern of many regions with farmers shifting to
water-intensive and commercial crops. This has great ecological consequences like
salinization of the soil.
⮚ The dams increase the social gap between the richer landowners and the landless
poor.
⮚ The dams create inter-state water disputes with regard to sharing the costs and
benefits of the multi-purpose project.
14.What is Bamboo Drip Irrigation? Mention any two features of it.
ANS: The Bamboo Drip Irrigation system is a 200-year-old system of tapping stream and
spring water by using bamboo pipes and transporting water from higher to lower regions
with the help of gravity.
Features:
18-20 liters of water enter the bamboo pipe system, gets transported over hundreds of
meters, and finally reduces to 20-80 drops per minute at the site of the plant.
The flow of water into the pipes is controlled by manipulating the pipe positions.
If the pipes pass a road, they are taken high above the land.