4. Water Conservation

Water conservation is the process to efficiently use available water and reduce water wastage as fresh clean water is a limited resource. Water conservation is central to sustainable development because it is necessary for socioeconomic development, energy and food production, healthy ecosystems, and human survival. Water is also central to climate change adaptation, acting as a vital link between society and the environment.
Water conservation measures should be implemented in proportion to the magnitude and cost of water usage. The measures should encourage continuous water consumption reduction and cost savings in water pumping, treatment, and disposal. Water conservation techniques may include water monitoring or management techniques, process and cooling or heating water recycling, reuse, and other methods, and sanitary water conservation techniques.

Importance of Water Conservation^[13]:

• 2.2 Billion people lack access to to safely managed drinking water services
  ( WHO/UNICEF 2019).
• Almost 2 billion people depend on health care facilities without basic water services ( WHO/UNICEF 2020).
• Over half of the global population or 4.2 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services (WHO/UNICEF 2019).
• Around 2/3rd of the world’s transboundary rivers do not have a cooperative management framework (SIWI).
• Agriculture accounts for 70% of global water withdrawal.

Technologies used in water conservation:

Seawater Desalination:

Seawater desalination is a process of removal of salt and minerals from the seawater. This is done using different methods like reverse osmosis, thermal distillation, vapourization among others. Most of the dry coastal countries use this method to extract water from the sea and satisfy their needs. One of the countries that uses desalination is Saudi Arabia. The history of desalination in this country dates back to the early 1900s, and was initiated to meet the needs of the rising population. Though they faced problems such as cost, technological support etc.in the initial days of installation, the country has recorded water desalination of 2.2 billion m3 in 2021. Water desalination not only helps to use the seawater efficiently, but also reduces the dependency on freshwater resources. ^[14].

Stormwater Management:

Another efficient water conservation method is Stormwater management. Under this, the roads and houses are designed in such a way that it either directs the rainwater into the groundwater recharge pits or into the storage tanks from where it can be extracted for later use.
Singapore is one of the countries that is planning to implement efficient stormwater management systems in their country^[15].

Aeroponics:

There are many technological advancements in the field of agriculture in order to meet the needs of the increasing population. One such innovation is ‘Aeroponics’. It is the science of growing plants without soil and water in liquid form. The plant saplings are placed on shelves one above another, and water is sprayed near the roots in the form of fine mist. This technique not only helps combat the space constraints by minimizing the dependency on soil, but also aids in water conservation as the water used in aeroponics is 95% less compared to traditional farming^[16].