P. S.

TEMPLE GREEN VIDYASHRAM

GEOGRAPHY WATER RESOURCES
1. How the Industrialisation and urbanization are responsible for the water scarcity?
i. Rapid industrialisation after the independence.
ii. Due to ever-increasing number of industries excess use of fresh water.
iii.Multiplying urban centres with large and dense population and urban lifestyles have added to water
and energy requirements.
iv. Overexploitation of water resources in cities as well as in villages.
2. What is Rain Water Harvesting? Write any two methods of Rain Water Harvesting popular in
different regions of India?
(i) A technique in which rain water is filled in empty places, tanks in houses, abandoned dug well etc.
Later it is used.
(ii) In hill and mountainous regions, people built diversion channels like ‘guls’ and ‘kuls’ for
irrigation.
(iii) ‘Rooftop rain water harvesting’ was commonly practiced to store drinking water, particularly in
Rajasthan.
(iv) In the flood plains of Bengal, people developed inundation channels to irrigate their fields.
(v) Rain fed storage structures like the ‘Khadins’ and ‘Johads’ in arid and semi-arid regions.
3. Why does the water need to be conserved and managed despite being a renewable resource?
(i) There is only 2.5% fresh water in the world.
(ii) Overexploitation of water resources.
(iii) Growing population, greater demand and unequal access.
(iv) Increasing Urbanization.
(v) Due to Industrialisation.
4. What is multipurpose river valley project? State different purposes of these projects?
Building dams on a river and achieving many purposes is called multi-purpose projects. Some of these
areas follows:
i. Irrigation
ii. Electricity generation
iii. Water supply for domestic and industrial uses
iv. Inland navigation and tourism
v. Flood control
vi. Fish breeding.
5. Why the scarcity of water is increasing in our country day by day? Enlist the reasons behind it?
i. India is a country of Monsoon climate. Sometime due to the failure of Monsoon the scarcity of
water Increases.
ii. The rapid growth in the demand of irrigation water.
iii. Due to the industrial activities downfall of underground water.
iv. Growing pressure on the water resources due to the pace of urbanization.
v. To meet the needs of the growing population.
6. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of multi-purpose river projects.
i. 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 streambeds and poorer
habitats for the rivers’ aquatic life.
ii. Dams also fragment rivers making it difficult for aquatic fauna to migrate, especially for
spawning.
iii. It has great ecological consequences like salinisation of the soil.
iv. At the same time, it has transformed the social landscape i.e. increasing the social gap between
the richer landowners and the landless poor.
v. The dams that were constructed to control floods have triggered floods due to sedimentation in
the reservoir. Moreover, the big dams have mostly been unsuccessful in controlling floods at
the time of excessive rainfall.
 It was also observed that the multi-purpose projects induced earthquakes, caused waterborne diseases
and pests and pollution resulting from excessive use of water.
7. Discuss how rainwater harvesting in semi-arid regions of Rajasthan is carried out.
In the semi-arid and arid regions of Rajasthan, particularly in Bikaner, Phalodi and Barmer, almost all
the houses traditionally had underground tanks or tankas for storing drinking water.
The tanks could be as large as a big room.
The tankas were part of the well-developed rooftop rainwater harvesting system and were built inside
the main house or the courtyard.
They were connected to the sloping roofs of the houses through a pipe.
Rain falling on the rooftops would travel down the pipe and was stored in these underground ‘tankas’.
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.
The rainwater can be stored in the tankas 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, or palar pani, as commonly referred to in these parts, is considered the purest form of
natural water.
Many houses constructed underground rooms adjoining the ‘tanka’ to beat the summer heat as it would
keep the room cool.
8. Describe how modern adaptations of traditional rainwater harvesting methods are being carried out
to conserve and store water.
a. Fortunately, in many parts of rural and urban India, rooftop rainwater harvesting is being successfully
adapted to store and conserve water.
b. In Gendathur, a remote backward village in Mysore, Karnataka, villagers have installed, in their
household’s rooftop, rainwater-harvesting system to meet their water needs.
c. Nearly 200 households have installed this system and the village has earned the rare distinction of being
rich in rainwater.
d. Rainwater harvesting is once again being conserved through modern adaptation.
e. Rainwater running down from the roofs is not fed into drains. Instead, it is piped into underground
reservoirs.