Online published on 12 January, 2015.
Economic growth and development leads to increase in consumption of goods, also invites innovations among educated and skilled societies, but is associated with possible inflation and pressures on resources in the market economies. Population is growing, connectivity and personal aspiration are changing, investment required for facilities and energy generation and for goods in demand, get higher. The sustainability of natural resources, biodiversity and its conservation in these environments, calls for with environment-linked controls on use of the finite resources, use of renewable energies, renewable fuels (biomass, bio-diesel and coal gasification). In India, which gets second largest rainfall among countries in this universe, depends on monsoon for its water resource. Recent focus on need for adoption technologies for removing pollutants from air, in waters, rivers and the land/soil, become equally demanding. The term “clean technologies” covers these environmentally benign technologies for use, conversion of the resources and wastes by nonpolluting processes into products, which are acceptable as environmentally benign products and services. The fuel sources, the forests, coal, biomass, biological waste, fisheries etc also become victims of increasing human need for energy, which is limited in availability and warrants a priority listing leads among the imbalanced supplies. The threat of India experiencing water stressed by 2025, also looms large. The availability, quantity, quality, access to source and its conveyance to place of use is likely to play a role in the sectors which are dependant on water economy. The scarcity and consequential impacts may lead to apportioning a price on waters, in Abstraction, conveyance, storage, treatment, conservation, and in all its demand forms.
Natural resources Air, Water, land and energy sources are vulnerable to being polluted by human actions. Efficiency approach to Abstraction, use of natural resources, including the invisible ground water source, suggests scientific approach, technologies and monitoring for performance evaluation. Among these, water as it falls on land, needs approach to uses to enhance its conservation, availability, minimizing its wasteful use, efforts to optimize its use, and ensuring its equity in distribution among all sections of society and the land universe of the country, with concurrent focus on conservation of all natural resources, the natural environments, biodiversity and other assets inherited and gifted to us over time. The approach takes us to work towards analyzing, introducing new strategic options in emerging water uses with appropriate technology and investments for future. Savings in evapo-transpiration losses, storing potential of waters, water harvesting and artificial recharge of ground waters, ensure ground water sustainability are among these. Loss of fresh waters, encroachments on river lands, contamination of ground waters, impact on health due to deterioration in water quality, contaminated food can cause a fatal blow to quality of life.
