Climate Change

The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report “Climate Change 2007: Impact, Adaptation and Vulnerability” unveiled in Brussels on April 6^th, 2007 seems to contain chilling facts and ominous figures on the weather and its changing patterns if one is to go by the media reports like "India to get 38 per cent less water by 2050" ["The Maharashtra Herald" (11th April,2007)]. The most portentous of them is the prediction that the availability of per capita water in India will drop by a whopping 38 per cent by the year 2050 AD. It has been pointed out that less rainfall, melting of the Glaciers due to the man-made climate changes, reducing ground water levels, etc are likely to further deteriorate the water availability in the country. The present national per capita water availability is 1820 cubic meters. This is likely to be reduced to as low as 1140 cubic meters. In terms of such figures it may not be possible to gauge the serious impact of this negative growth in water availability. If one is told that s/he will get approximately 4 glasses of water less in 2050 AD for every 10 glasses s/he consumes presently, s/he will be able to visualize the seriousness of this ominous warning.

The highlights of the Report also remind us of the lurking dangers like intense rain over fewer days, Flash floods, Direct run-off of water, depletion in ground-water recharging potential, Global Warming, negative impact on the cereal production,0.5 degree Celsius rise in the Winter temperature, etc apart from the steep decline in the gross availability of per capita water. For the Asian countries in general and India in particular, these climate changes might play havoc with the lives of the people, the economy and the food security. Ironically, the major reason for the negative climate changes is undesirable human activities which are environmentally unfriendly and put the green house on the back foot. The global warming is already known as the Frankenstein of Man’s Blind Pursuits. Since all these factors have serious effects on water this must make us sit up and think louder.

It is a known public policy that Water is a precious national asset as well as the prime natural resource. The existence of the humans depends on the availability of water. Unfortunately, now water is the most abused natural resource. The rapid indutrialisation has rendered the river system in the country highly polluted. The rapidly happening climate changes have seriously and irreversibly impacted the water scenario. We must not allow this to happen and ought to endeavour to reverse these negative growths.

It is high time, the Policymakers paid adequate attention to this serious issue that poses a formidable challenge to our younger generation. For the sake of our posterity, we must devise certain measures to arrest these negative fall-outs of the development.

As ordinary citizens, we can also play a proactive role by resolving not to make further damage to the environment. Reducing the usage of the fossil fuels and the civic movement to create awareness against the mindless deforestation may contribute largely in arresting these negative climate changes. Even small measures may result in big results. This might also boost the availability of per capita water in future against the ominous projections.