Most of MBA exams test your general awareness either in exam or in GD so it is important for MBA aspirants to update GK at regular intervals.
Today, you will read General Awareness Topic : Water Water Everywhere...Not enough Drops to Drink – The Indian Scenario
Drinking water is something one can’t live without. No doubt it is called LIFE. In the world, its scarcity is now one of the major issues that the people are fighting against. With the temperature of the Earth increasing day by day, more and more ice caps are melting. This has caused an alarming increase in the rise of sea level. This rise has led to the untimely flooding of lowland areas, especially of low-lying islands and coastal regions. Many islands in fact have already gone under water.
Now coming back to the actual concern, the main reason behind this acute global water crisis is this global warming and its cause, the greenhouse effect. The primary thing is that the major rivers of the world are mainly dependent on the ice caps for the amount of water they carry and the melting of these ice caps in abnormal proportions is causing floods and droughts. Major parts of these rivers are getting dried up as a result of this, and this is the main reason behind the global water crisis.
The irregularity of the monsoon has now become the usual occurrence, every year. Most of the floods in India occur mainly because of untimely heavy rain and improper drainage system. Moreover when heavy rainfall occurs in the region of the confluence of two or three rivers, there is no outlet for the rising water levels as the rivers themselves get filled up to their brim and can no longer contain any extra water. Every year, the floods account for nearly 15percent of the total losses in the country. Not only do they cause damage to standing crops and property, they also disrupt the functioning of society for a while and thus huge losses are incurred in the market.
It is indeed a strange fact that in spite of the historic flooding that took place in the recent past, India is facing an imminent water crisis. Why is this so? The main reason is that most parts of the country are getting too little rain for most of the year. And if and when the rain is falling, it is in such an enormous amount that instead of helping the crops grows, it is actually destroying them. What the soil needs is enough water to sustain the microorganisms and the crops standing on it. Instead of that, it is receiving more than enough quantities of water which is the root cause of destruction. Questions have been arising as to the problem of drinking water crisis in India. With so many rivers crisscrossing across the entire nation, it is hard to imagine a country like India suffering from water crisis problems. But this is the actual fact.
In India, the main sources of drinking water are the fresh water lakes, the rivers and the underground water which are pumped up using tube wells. A growing demand has almost depleted the underground water supply of India. And due to less and sporadic rainfall in most parts of the country over the past couple of years, the lakes and rivers have dried up in many parts. As it is, there are less than enough pumping stations throughout the country which are responsible for providing the entire nation with clean drinking water. Now to add to the problem, the sources of the water itself are getting depleted.
In the international scenario, there was recent falling out between the two neighbouring countries of India and Bangladesh over the division of water from the Ganges River. Though the problem has now been dealt with, it has painted a very clear picture of the global water shortage.
No doubt it has been rightly said that if there happens any third world war in the coming years, the reason for the war will be the division of water among the fighting nations.
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