All exercise questions from the NCERT textbook India: People and Economy, Chapter 4, “Water Resources”, exactly as the English edition prints them, with a full model answer for each. Try your own answer first, then check it against this one.
1 Choose the right answer of the following from the given options
Q. Which one of the following types describes water as a resource?
(a) Abiotic resource (b) Non-renewable Resources (c) Biotic Resource (d) Non-cyclic Resource
Answer: (a) Abiotic resource. The chapter opens by calling water “a cyclic resource with abundant supplies on the globe”: it is a non-living, abiotic resource that circulates rather than being used up, so it is neither non-renewable nor non-cyclic, and it is not a biotic (living) resource either.
Q. Which one of the following south Indian states has the highest groundwater utilisation (in per cent) of its total ground water potential?
(a) Tamil Nadu (b) Karnataka (c) Andhra Pradesh (d) Kerala
Answer: (a) Tamil Nadu. The chapter names Tamil Nadu, along with Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, among the states with very high groundwater utilisation; of these four, Tamil Nadu is the only south Indian state, so it is the one referred to here.
Q. The highest proportion of the total water used in the country is in which one of the following sectors?
(a) Irrigation (b) Industries (c) Domestic use (d) None of the above
Answer: (a) Irrigation. Agriculture (irrigation) accounts for 89 per cent of surface water utilisation and 92 per cent of groundwater utilisation, far ahead of industry (2 per cent / 5 per cent) or the domestic sector.
2 Answer the following questions in about 30 words
Q. It is said that the water resources in India have been depleting very fast. Discuss the factors responsible for depletion of water resources?
Answer: Rising population increases the demand for water while supply stays limited; industrial, agricultural and domestic effluents pollute available surface and groundwater; heavy irrigation of water-intensive crops draws down both surface and groundwater; and over-extraction for irrigation in states like Punjab and Haryana has lowered the water table.
Q. What factors are responsible for the highest groundwater development in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu?
Answer: Heavy dependence on irrigation for water-intensive cropping is responsible: in Punjab and Haryana, more than 85 per cent of the net sown area is under irrigation, with wells and tubewells irrigating 76.1 per cent and 51.3 per cent of the net irrigated area respectively, and Tamil Nadu similarly depends heavily on groundwater for its irrigated agriculture.
Q. Why the share of agricultural sector in total water used in the country is expected to decline?
Answer: Although agriculture presently uses the largest share of water (89 per cent of surface water, 92 per cent of groundwater), the chapter states that with continuing development, the shares of the industrial and domestic sectors in total water utilisation are likely to increase, which will reduce agriculture’s relative share of total water used.
Q. What can be possible impacts of consumption of contaminated/unclean water on the people?
Answer: Toxic substances and pollutants that enter water bodies deteriorate water quality and render it unfit for human use; consuming such contaminated water, or water polluted by heavy or toxic metals, fluoride and nitrates, exposes people to serious health risks, since these substances can also seep down and contaminate groundwater used for drinking.
3 Answer the following questions in about 150 words
Q. Discuss the availability of water resources in the country and factors that determine its spatial distribution?
Answer: India receives about 4,000 cubic km of water from precipitation each year, of which 1,869 cubic km is available from surface water and replenishable groundwater; only 60 per cent of this can be put to beneficial use, so the total utilisable water resource is only 1,122 cubic km. This availability is very unevenly distributed. Surface water depends on the size of a river’s catchment area and the rainfall within it: the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the Barak basins receive relatively high catchment rainfall and, though covering only about one-third of the country’s area, hold 60 per cent of the total surface water resources, while topographical and hydrological constraints mean only about 690 cubic km (32 per cent) of the available surface water can actually be utilised nationwide. Groundwater utilisation is likewise uneven: it is very high in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, low in states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Kerala, and moderate in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tripura and Maharashtra, reflecting how far each region’s agriculture and settlement pattern depend on groundwater rather than surface sources.
Q. The depleting water resources may lead to social conflicts and disputes. Elaborate it with suitable examples?
Answer: The chapter opens by noting that water is a scarce and unevenly available resource, so tensions and disputes over sharing and controlling it are becoming contested issues among communities, regions and states. Examples: (1) Between states: inter-state river-water disputes, such as the long-running dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over sharing the waters of the Cauvery, arise because each state wants more water for irrigation and cities from the same river. (2) Between countries: the book’s news item “Rivers of conflict… but also of peace” notes more than 500 conflicts over water in the past century, and more than 260 river basins that cross national borders; yet India and Pakistan, in conflict over other matters, have reached a workable accord on sharing river waters. (3) Within communities and regions: over-use of groundwater for irrigation has lowered the water table in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, so wells of small farmers dry up while those who can afford deeper tubewells keep pumping; over-withdrawal has raised fluoride in Rajasthan and Maharashtra and arsenic in parts of West Bengal and Bihar, making drinking water unsafe. (4) Between users of the same river: polluted stretches such as the Yamuna between Delhi and Etawah set downstream users against upstream cities and industries. Since per capita availability keeps falling as population grows, such conflicts will sharpen unless water is shared fairly and conserved through watershed management, rainwater harvesting and efficient irrigation.
Q. What is watershed management? Do you think it can play an important role in sustainable development?
Answer: In its narrow sense, watershed management means the efficient management and conservation of surface and groundwater resources, preventing runoff and recharging groundwater through percolation tanks, recharge wells and similar methods. In its broad sense, it includes the conservation, regeneration and judicious use of all natural resources, land, water, plants and animals, together with human resources, within a watershed, aiming to balance natural resources and society; its success depends largely on community participation. Yes, it can play an important role in sustainable development: the chapter’s own Ralegan Siddhi case study shows a village transformed from poverty into one where water is adequate and agriculture flourishes, through a community-built and voluntarily repaired percolation tank, alongside programmes such as Haryali, the Atal Bhujal Yojana, Neeru-Meeru and the Arvary Pani Sansad, all of which show that managing a watershed’s natural resources through community participation can secure both livelihoods and the resource base for the future, exactly what sustainable development requires.
4 In-text Questions and Activities (asked within the chapter)
Q. Intensive irrigation in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh is increasing salinity in the soil and depletion of groundwater irrigation. Discuss its likely impacts on agriculture.
Answer: More than 85 per cent of the net sown area in these states is irrigated, and wells and tubewells irrigate 76.1 per cent of the net irrigated area in Punjab and 51.3 per cent in Haryana, so the groundwater table has declined. Likely impacts: salinity lowers soil fertility and crop yields and can make land unfit for cultivation; a falling water table means deeper tubewells, higher pumping costs and energy use, and small farmers who cannot afford them may be pushed out; water-intensive crops such as rice and sugarcane become harder to sustain; and the productivity gains of the Green Revolution, which depended on assured irrigation, are put at risk. Water-saving methods, crop diversification and recharge of groundwater are needed.
Q. Find out which are the major towns/cities located on the bank of the Ganga and its tributaries and major industries they have (Fig. 4.2).
Answer: This is a map activity based on Fig. 4.2. Towns on the Ganga include Haridwar, Kanpur, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Varanasi, Patna, Bhagalpur and Kolkata (on the Hugli); on the Yamuna, Delhi, Mathura and Agra; on the Gomti, Lucknow. For each town, note its main industries from your atlas or local knowledge, for example leather, textiles and chemicals at Kanpur, and textiles at Varanasi. The chapter itself names the Ganga at Kanpur and Varanasi, the Yamuna between Delhi and Etawah and the Gomti at Lucknow among the severely polluted river stretches, which shows how industrial and domestic effluents from such towns reach the rivers.
Q. Discuss the issues highlighted in the news items.
Answer: The three news items on this page raise three issues. (1) “Rivers of conflict… but also of peace”: water has long been a cause of tension and conflict within and between nations; there have been more than 500 conflicts over water in the past century, and more than 260 river basins cross national borders. Yet water is also an agent of cooperation: there are more than 3,800 declarations or conventions on water, including 286 treaties, and countries in conflict over other matters, such as India and Pakistan, have reached workable accords on water. Another example it gives of cooperation is the Northern Aral Sea, shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which is being successfully restored after it had shrunk to less than half its original size when a massive diversion of water under the Soviet Union drained the two rivers feeding it. (2) “Rich countries poor in supply of water: WWF”: even rich, industrialised countries are losing the battle to maintain water supplies; parts of Europe face recurring droughts, Mediterranean water is being depleted by tourism and irrigated agriculture, salinity threatens farmland in Australia, and wide areas of the USA use more water than can be replenished. Scarcity is not a problem of poor countries alone. (3) “Climate change? Barmer grapples with floods”: Barmer lies in the dry west of Rajasthan, yet it faced floods; the headline links such unusual extremes to climate change. Points for discussion: water must be shared through cooperation and agreements rather than conflict; every country, rich or poor, needs conservation (watershed management, rainwater harvesting, efficient irrigation, recycling and reuse); and planning must prepare for extreme events, even floods in a desert district.
Q. Observe the quantity of water used at your home in various activities and enlist the ways in which the water can be reused and recycled in various activities.
Answer: Keep a one-week record of water used for drinking and cooking, bathing, washing clothes and utensils, cleaning, gardening and washing vehicles. Ways to reuse and recycle, as the chapter suggests: water left after bathing and washing utensils can be used for gardening; water used for washing vehicles can also be used for gardening; and reclaimed wastewater of lesser quality can be used for cooling and fire fighting. Rooftop rainwater harvesting can add to the supply. This saves better-quality water for drinking.