Water is our basic need. Most of our body consists of water. Day to day in our lives something is always related to the need for water. Some places have an abundance of water, in some other areas it is very scarce. In the city, most people use ground water for reducing expenses for water, such as for drinking water, washing cars, motorcycles or even for taking a bath. Meanwhile, there is a land subsidence as a natural hazard that should be faced.
Most of forest or catchment areas have been converted to other land use (new settlements, industry areas, etc) in urban areas. The impact is that the cost of water-treatment production is becoming higher and higher. To avoid high expenses, most of urban inhabitants use ground water and this is making land subsidence worse.
Indonesia has thousands small islands and has a similar problem with fresh water. They use rain water as a source of drinking or cooking. They can not desalinate sea water to provide freshwater due to expensive cost production.
Then, is there any hope to solve this situation because water will be scarce in some time, not only in the areas which have scare water, but also will be influence the areas which have an abundance of water.
This is certainly a massive problem. A whole array of solutions are needed, with each solution helping out to conserve water. In urban areas, stormwater runoff can be reduced by increasing percolation by having more grassy areas and green roofs. Permeable concrete is too expensive ( as of now). natural or construcrted wetlkands can help treat some of the city's municipal wastwater and free that water up for reuse, at least for urban agriculture and other nonpotable uses.
At the basin level, there has to be a restoration of forests and wetlands to the max extent as is possible. Gallery forests along streams and rivers also helps in maintain water quality instream.
However, this requires awareness and action on the part of city officials, water ministry, communities, schools and companies -- it is a multi-stakeholder process.
I love your all of your responses.
Indonesia faced this situation:
1. many small island in Indonesia below 10 km2 and has morethan thousands inhabitant per island
2. most of them using rain water as their sources of freshwater for drinking and cooking
3. most of them are poor and did not capability to desalinate water sea
4. Indonesia still try to overcome the financial problem, sothat we can not concern about desalination program in small islands yet to solve these big issues over the country
5. many small islands are flat area and less trees, etc.
Do you all have suggestion on that specific issues?
The solution mut be sustainable. for example- groundwater pumping is a viable alternative in the short term, as it provides a good access to fresh water. This will cause population to grow around these areas Unfortunatly many aquifers are limited. Once the water has run out, then what will happen to all the people that moved into this region?
Advancements cause population growth, but is growth neccessarily a good thing?
If there is a sewage system in these settlements, and if there is some land area, constructed (or even natural) wetlands can treat wastewater cheaply, generate fish/vegetable/rice and also help recharge groundwater. A good example is the East Kolkata Wetlands that have been operating for the past several decades, treating a large amount of calcutta municipal sewage in about 12500 hectares of natural wetlands and settling ponds where fish are cultivated, and the treated water then used to grow vegetables and rice. http://www.ekwma.com/
But even in these wetlands, well known and with the status of a Ramsar wetland site, there are daily challenges, from real estate developers to siltation and industrial pollutants in runoff and discharges. As Sarah mentions, this is all the more reason for community awareness, without which common goods get brushed aside by "development" to benefit a few.
One answer is massive rain water harvesting. Also you can try to improve your ground water table by the process of recharging of ground water.You need to tell us the % of precipitation in Indonesia. There are a examples of improvement in water table values but more specific information such as topography of land, type of soil, etc are required to suggest specific solutions.
Awareness & acceptability of existing technology, in addition to control on human population and greed to use more is the key
Harvest rain - Construct (Dig) percolation pit / shaft / trench / ponds
Ground water recharge - minimization of runoff that joins the sea
Recycle and reuse
Minimizes losses - check evaporation by mulching, forestation around agricultural fields
Domestic Use : Roof water Harvesting, Use bucket instead of shower, Cloth washing using bucket instead of running water
Recycling kitchen & Bathroom waste water for gardening, use of drip, micro tube, mini sprinklers in gardens, organic waste in gardens will conserve moisture for long
Washing utensils using containers instead of running water
Cloth wash water for cleaning vehicles, floors, cleaning vehicle by mopping not by running water,
Repairing leaks
Regulations: Volumetric water charges, Compulsory water harvesting,
Licensing of well diggers, Restriction on well digging
strict family planning - foot prints of human population is killing the bio diversity
Industry : Industrial units restricted to industrial areas, Compulsory water treatment by polluting industry
Desalination of sea water through solar energy - presently not popular due to costs and alternate ways but with time it will have to be relied upon
Technologies exist, sincere effort are needed to plan, design and execute for the particular location that suits for comprehensive "development" of all.
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