Water Supply
Water is one of the essential requirements for life. All living things need water for their survival. Water is used for a variety of purposes, including drinking, food preparation, irrigation and manufacturing, power generation.
Water is one of the essential requirements for life. All living things need water for their survival. Water is used for a variety of purposes, including drinking, food preparation, irrigation and manufacturing, power generation. Although water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, less than 1% of that resource is available as freshwater – and this is not evenly distributed throughout the world. We obtain the water we use from three basic sources: groundwater, surface water, and rainwater.
Groundwater includes all water that is found underground within the rocks. Surface water means water in rivers, lakes, pools and ponds. Rainwater replenishes both groundwater and surface water, and can also be collected directly.
Groundwater sources Water is withdrawn from an aquifer by pumping it out of a well, tube well, hand pump.
Open Well: Where groundwater is available at low depth (less than 15 meters – and water is available all year round, open well is used. Wells are constructed in several ways, depending on the depth and nature of the aquifer. Wells used for public water supplies, usually more than 30 meters deep, must penetrate large aquifers that can provide dependable yields of good-quality water. They are drilled using impact or rotary techniques and are usually lined with a metal pipe or casing to prevent contamination. A submersible pump driven by an electric motor can be used to raise the water to the surface. Sometimes a deep well may penetrate a confined artesian aquifer, in which case natural hydrostatic pressure can raise the water to the surface.
Hand Pump: Where safe groundwater is available up to 60 m depth, a hand pump is an ideal choice for a cluster or habitation.
Bore Well/Tube Well: Where groundwater is at greater depth and open wells or hand pumps are not viable, bore well or tube well is installed.
Surface Water: River, pond, dam site are sources where surface water is available.
The total land area that contributes surface runoff to a river or lake is called a watershed, drainage basin, or catchment area. The volume of water available for municipal supply depends mostly on the amount of rainfall. It also depends on the size of the watershed, the slope of the ground, the type of soil and vegetation, and the type of land use.
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