Question

Why is there a need to conserve water? State the methods that can be adopted to conserve water.

Answer 1

Need to conserve water:

• People of many parts of India as well as all over the world live with extreme scarcity of water.
• The purpose of water conservation is to increase the amount of clean water available.

Methods to conserve water:

• Using less water and avoiding wastage at home. Example: turning off the tap while brushing teeth, using bucket to wash cars instead of pipe.
• Better management of water by civic authorities. Example: preventing leakage of pipes.
• Using better methods of irrigation such as drip irrigation, in which water is supplied drop by drop to the roots of the plants instead of watering the whole field.
• Recycling of water in factories and using it several times before disposing off.
• Effective flood control, specially by building dams and reservoirs.
• Soil conservation methods such as planting trees also increase the supply of groundwater.
• Treating sewage and factory wastes before disposing them off so that water sources are not polluted.
• Using biodegradable fertilisers and pesticides so that groundwater is not contaminated.
• Implementing rainwater harvesting methods.