Underscoring that water scarcity posed a grave threat to economic growth, human rights and national security, the United Nations has said that the issue needs to be placed high on the global agenda.

Can we have an impact?

IEEE created “Water for the World” to tackle issues of water availability in developing countries. Availability means new (and plentiful) water; it means good quality water; and it means efficient reuse of water. An international panel was convened to prioritize actions and develop demonstration pilot programs. The Pilots had to be

• Realizable within one year Scalable
• Sustainable
• Reusable
• Repeatable
• Fundable

IEEE has identified several projects for initial consideration in the program:

• Cisterns for Rainwater Harvesting in India; replacing the local intermittent ponds
• Protecting drinking water in Ghana
• Improving drinking water quality in Bangladesh

Cisterns for Rainwater Harvesting in India; replacing the local intermittent ponds

Semi-arid areas are at the mercy of rain for agriculture production. Low annual rainfall with very high co-efficient of variation and its unfavourable erratic distribution over the growing season results in subsistence type of rain fed farming. Rainfall, when accumulated, can result in a large enough volume of water to have a significant impact on subsistence farming. This pilot project will create a means to capture and store rainwater for later use in irrigating staple food crops at the project site in village Melva of Jodhpur district of India. This will result in increased production of pearl millet and pulses by 300-350%. Villagers from Melva will participate in planning and in building the required cistern and tank and in preparing the surfaces for harvesting rainwater. MGCS, Jodhpur and local industry will build a training facility to support long-term sustainability. The experiences will be shared with nearby villages, thereby enabling them to repeat the project.

Protecting drinking water in Ghana

Ghana has acute water security and governance problems, which translates into inefficient water services and poor maintenance. Environmental issues of water pollution due to illegal activities and increasing drought are significant and seasonal shortage of water leads, for example, to temporary closure of some schools and other facilities in the country. A particular case of high treatment cost due to pollution from human activities and urban water shortage is the Weija Dam that supplies western Accra’s population.

The main cause of the Weija Dam problem is encroachment into the catchment with informal housing, agriculture, fishing and other land-based economic activities, the eviction of which will cost estimated $3 million to effect by the government. The pilot project will provide improved information to government and utility decision makers by organizing the spatial data sets for telling the real story. The output of the project will be used for a multi-party conference on how to most effectively improve water governance and water security systems associated with the Weija Dam. The Pilot project outcomes will then be extended to other regions of Ghana.

Improving drinking water quality in Bangladesh

Arsenic contamination of groundwater has been an emerging global challenge for safe drinking water management. Arsenic is a carcinogen which can cause various kinds of cancers and cardiovascular, neurological and other diseases. Approximately, 30-60 million people may be at the risk of drinking arsenic contaminated water in Bangladesh. About 46% of the installed arsenic safe water technologies were not functioning due to the problems related to its designs, and/or operation and maintenance problems.

The pilot project will develop an appropriate system for safe drinking water supply among 14,000 of the poorest rural populations in 80% arsenic contaminated Muladi sub-district. The challenges are to: (i) provide safe drinking water among selected priority 14000 people in one/first year based on development of community water technologies from surface-water, groundwater and/or rainwater sources and (ii) develop an empowered women based network for operations of the system and also for community health education about safe drinking water. Longer term, the project objective is to develop and promote a continuing drinking water development mechanism for poor communities by linking the project to an existing networking institution.