Talk of the Month

Solid Facts of a Liquid called "Water"

"What cannot be measured cannot be monitored and what cannot be administered cannot be accomplished". Now, imagine that our measurements themselves are in error!

Universities are amazing places to make not only scientific breakthroughs but they are also the abodes to point to such socially relevant issues of errors that matter. One of such socially relevant 'disruptive' findings made in the campus was on water losses through evaporation and through transpiration (the water losses through the leaves of trees that take the water from ground). It was carried out in Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore with the help of satellite studies in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organization.

The study, concluded that India's water situation was worse than what the government had imagined, because the policy makers in the government under estimated the losses through evaporation and transpiration. That means the usable water for us is much less that we thought. The study pointed out that our ineffective measurements lead to feeble monitoring and hence the administrators are unable to accomplish the objective of easing the water situation.

The estimate of the supply side of the water i.e rainfall from monsoon and the melting of glaciers are difficult to make because are getting affected by global warming, deforestation and air pollution. Human intervention has been unprecedented to affect the supply.

On the demand side management of the water, there are even more serious issues. They are not only related to direct use of water in agriculture, industry and domestic sectors, but also connected to our global trade. When we consume a spoon of sugar (about 4 grams) we also consume about half a bucket (6 liters) of water that is needed to produce it (growing sugar cane and processing into sugar in factory). It is called as 'virtual water' demand. Similarly, 1 kg of cotton represents 22,500 liters of virtual water. When India exports sugar and cotton or any other food commodity, it is also exporting water. The importing country gets to save that much water. The estimates show that India is fifth largest exporter of water and China is fifth largest importer of water.

It is legitimate question for the students and researchers in the university campus, why India should export water when the common man in India suffers from water shortages?

Along with IISCs, number of IITs, and universities abroad like Columbia are engaged in supply side and demand side modeling so that we have policy relevant estimates and measurement of water in order to monitor, administer and accomplish the task of water management.

"Smart Campus Cloud Network (SCCN) seeks to create a network of Universities to encourage the collaborative research to help us making better measurements for monitoring our future."