Water Resources · Class 10 Geography: 100 flashcards
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1. How does water become a renewable resource?
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Because all water moves within the hydrological cycle, so surface run off and ground water are continually renewed and recharged.
2. What proportion of the earth's surface is covered with water, and how much of it is usable freshwater?
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Three-fourths of the surface lies under water, though only a small fraction of it is freshwater that can be put to use.
3. How many people are predicted to live in absolute water scarcity by 2025?
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Nearly two billion.
4. State the three main causes of water scarcity.
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Taking out more than can be replaced, using too much of it, and sharing it unequally between social groups.
5. Why does availability of water vary over space and time?
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Mainly due to variations in seasonal and annual precipitation.
6. Can a region with ample water resources still face scarcity? Give the chapter's example.
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Yes. Many of our cities are such examples, where a large and growing population, greater demands and unequal access create scarcity.
7. Which activity is the largest consumer of water?
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Irrigated agriculture.
8. What two changes does the chapter suggest for agriculture?
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Developing drought resistant crops and dry farming techniques.
9. What can farmers' own wells and tube-wells lead to?
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Falling groundwater levels, which adversely affect water availability and the food security of the people.
10. Why do industries put pressure on water twice over?
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They are heavy users of water themselves, and they require power to run, much of which comes from hydroelectric power.
11. How have urban centres added to the problem?
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Large dense populations and urban lifestyles have added to water and energy requirements, and most housing societies run their own groundwater pumping devices.
12. Explain scarcity that is caused by quality rather than quantity.
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Water may be sufficient to meet the needs of the people but polluted by domestic and industrial wastes, chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers, making it hazardous for human use.
13. Is a region with high annual rainfall but highly polluted water suffering from water scarcity?
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Yes, because the water available is hazardous for human use, and scarcity is about usable water.
14. Is a region with low rainfall and low population suffering from water scarcity?
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Yes, in most answer keys. Availability varies mainly with rainfall, so low rainfall itself limits the water available, even if few people use it.
15. What is the goal of the Jal Jeevan Mission?
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To enable every rural household to get an assured supply of potable piped water at 55 litres per capita per day, regularly and on a long-term basis, by ensuring the functionality of tap water connections.
16. How many Gram Panchayats does the Atal Bhujal Yojana cover, and across how many states?
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8,220 water stressed Gram Panchayats in 229 blocks of 80 districts, across seven states.
17. Name the seven states covered by the Atal Bhujal Yojana.
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Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
18. What is the key behavioural aim of Atal Jal?
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To move people from thinking about how much water they can use to thinking about how much they can save, and managing it intelligently.
19. Give the four reasons the chapter offers for conserving and managing water.
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To safeguard ourselves from health hazards, to ensure food security, to continue livelihoods and productive activities, and to prevent degradation of natural ecosystems.
20. Correct this statement: multiplying urban centres and urban lifestyles have helped in proper utilisation of water resources.
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They have added to water and energy requirements and further aggravated the problem, with fragile water resources over-exploited and depleted in several cities.
21. Define a dam.
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A wall standing across running water, blocking it, steering it or slowing it, and usually leaving a reservoir, lake or impoundment behind.
22. What does the word 'dam' refer to, according to the chapter?
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The reservoir, rather than the structure.
23. What is a spillway or weir?
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A section of most dams over or through which water is intended to flow, either intermittently or continuously.
24. On what three bases are dams classified?
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Structure, intended purpose, or height.
25. Name the types of dam by structure and materials.
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Timber dams, embankment dams and masonry dams, with several subtypes.
26. Name the categories of dam by height.
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Large dams and major dams, or alternatively low dams, medium height dams and high dams.
27. Why were dams traditionally built?
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To hold back river water and rain so it could be drawn on later to water the fields.
28. List the purposes for which dams are built today.
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Eight of them — irrigation, power, water for homes and for industry, flood control, recreation, inland navigation and fish breeding.
29. What makes a project a 'multi-purpose' project?
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That the several uses the stored water is put to are made to work together.
30. Which two uses does the Bhakra-Nangal project combine, and in which basin?
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Hydel power production and irrigation, in the Sutluj-Beas river basin.
31. What does the Hirakud project integrate, and in which basin?
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Conservation of water with flood control, in the Mahanadi basin.
32. Who called dams the 'temples of modern India', and why?
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Jawaharlal Nehru — on the grounds that they would knit farming and the village economy together with fast industrial growth and an expanding urban economy.
33. What were multi-purpose projects expected to do for the nation after Independence?
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Act as what would carry the country forward into development and progress, getting past the handicap of its colonial past.
34. On which river and in which state is the Sardar Sarovar Dam built?
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On the Narmada River, in Gujarat.
35. Which four states does the Sardar Sarovar project cover?
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Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
36. How much land will Sardar Sarovar irrigate in Gujarat, and across how many villages and districts?
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18.45 lakh hectare, covering 3,112 villages in 15 districts.
37. What is the Krishna-Godavari dispute about?
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Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh object to Maharashtra diverting more water at Koyna for a multipurpose project, which would cut the flow further down in their own States, to the harm of farming and industry.
38. Which ancient site near Allahabad had a sophisticated water harvesting system?
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Sringaverapura, in the first century B.C., channelling the flood water of the Ganga.
39. Who built the tank at Hauz Khas, and for what?
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Allauddin Khilji, in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, for supplying water to the Siri Fort area of Delhi.
40. What do 'har khet ko pani' and 'per drop more crop' stand for?
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The objectives of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana — expanding cultivable area under assured irrigation, and improving on-farm water use efficiency.
41. What does regulating and damming a river do to its flow?
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It affects the natural flow, causing poor sediment flow downstream and excessive sedimentation at the bottom of the reservoir.
42. What is the result of that change in sediment for the river's life?
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Rockier stream beds and poorer habitats for the rivers' aquatic life.
43. Why does fragmenting a river matter to aquatic fauna?
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Because it makes it difficult for them to migrate, especially for spawning.
44. What happens to vegetation and soil on flood plains where a reservoir is created?
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They are submerged and decompose over a period of time.
45. Why is the effect of dams on flood control described as ironic?
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Because the reservoir silts up, and dams built to prevent floods end up causing them.
46. How does sedimentation cause floods?
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Silt fills the reservoir so it holds less water, leaving less room to hold back a flood surge.
47. How successful have big dams been at controlling floods in heavy rain?
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Mostly unsuccessful at the time of excessive rainfall.
48. What have such floods caused, besides devastation of life and property?
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Extensive soil erosion.
49. What have the flood plains been deprived of, and why does it matter?
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Silt, which is a natural fertiliser. Its loss adds to the problem of land degradation.
50. Name the three further effects observed from multi-purpose projects.
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Earthquakes set off by the dam itself, diseases and pests carried by the water, and pollution from using too much of it.
51. How has irrigation changed farming in many regions?
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It has changed the cropping pattern, with farmers shifting to water intensive and commercial crops.
52. What ecological consequence does the chapter name from that shift?
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Salinisation of the soil.
53. Put this right: controlling and damming a river leaves its natural flow, and the sediment it carries, untouched.
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Regulating and damming of rivers does affect their natural flow and sediment flow, so that sediment moves badly and far too much of it settles on the reservoir floor.
54. Which statement in the exercise is not an argument in favour of multi-purpose river projects?
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That these projects uproot people in large numbers and take away how they made a living.
55. Why does the chapter say large dams have come under scrutiny?
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Because multi-purpose projects and large dams have attracted great scrutiny and opposition for a variety of reasons, set out as effects on the river, the land, floods, health and cropping.
56. Which disadvantage arises from a benefit rather than from a failure?
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Salinisation, since it follows from assured irrigation changing the cropping pattern towards water intensive crops.
57. Which two groups of damage occur above the dam, and which below?
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Above: excessive sedimentation in the reservoir, and submergence of vegetation and soil. Below: poor sediment flow, rockier beds, poorer aquatic habitats, and flood plains deprived of silt.
58. A species that never enters the reservoir still suffers from the dam. Why?
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Because dams fragment the river, so aquatic fauna cannot migrate along it, especially for spawning.
59. State one advantage and its matching disadvantage.
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Flood control is an advantage claimed for multi-purpose projects, yet dams built to control floods have triggered them through sedimentation and have mostly been unsuccessful at times of excessive rainfall.
60. Why are water-borne diseases listed among the effects of multi-purpose projects?
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Because the projects were observed to cause water-borne diseases and pests, alongside induced earthquakes and pollution from excessive use of water.
61. Name the eight dams prescribed for map work in this chapter.
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Salal, Bhakra Nangal, Tehri, Rana Pratap Sagar, Sardar Sarovar, Hirakud, Nagarjuna Sagar and Tungabhadra.
62. On which river does Salal stand, and in which state?
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On the Chenab, in Jammu and Kashmir.
63. On which river does Bhakra Nangal stand?
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The Satluj, on the Punjab-Himachal border, in the Sutluj-Beas basin.
64. Where is Tehri located?
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In the upper Ganga basin, in Uttarakhand.
65. On which river does Rana Pratap Sagar stand, and in which state?
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On the Chambal, in Rajasthan.
66. On which river does Sardar Sarovar stand, and in which state?
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On the Narmada, in Gujarat.
67. On which river does Hirakud stand, and in which state?
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On the Mahanadi, in Odisha.
68. On which river does Nagarjuna Sagar stand, and in which state?
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On the Krishna, on the Telangana–Andhra Pradesh border.
69. On which river does Tungabhadra stand, and in which state?
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On the Tungabhadra, in Karnataka.
70. Which three of the eight dams are named in the chapter's running text?
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Bhakra Nangal, Hirakud and Sardar Sarovar.
71. Which five dams appear only as labels on the map?
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Salal, Tehri, Rana Pratap Sagar, Nagarjuna Sagar and Tungabhadra.
72. Which two other dams stand on the Chambal beside Rana Pratap Sagar?
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Gandhi Sagar and the Kota Barrage. Neither is on the prescribed list.
73. Which four dams form the Damodar cluster on the map?
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Tilaiya, Konar, Maithon and Panchet.
74. Which dam on the map is the site of the Krishna-Godavari dispute?
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Koyna, where Maharashtra's diversion is objected to by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
75. Why should you learn each dam together with its river?
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Because the rivers are already drawn on an outline map while the dams are not, so finding the river is what lets you place the dam.
76. What is a map question actually marked on?
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Putting the feature in the right place on the outline map, not on neatness of drawing.
77. Who may answer the written alternative to a map question in the board paper?
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Only visually impaired candidates. All other candidates must locate and label the feature on the outline map.
78. The syllabus writes 'Hirakund' and your book writes 'Hirakud'. What should you do?
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Write the spelling your book uses. They are the same dam, and the difference does not cost marks.
79. Which dam stands on the Mahanadi and also appears in the text as an example of integration?
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Hirakud, which integrates conservation of water with flood control.
80. Which two of the eight dams lie in peninsular India?
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Nagarjuna Sagar on the Krishna and Tungabhadra on the Tungabhadra.
81. Why was water harvesting thought a viable alternative to multi-purpose projects?
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Because of the disadvantages of and rising resistance against those projects, and because harvesting is viable both socio-economically and environmentally.
82. What knowledge did traditional harvesting rest on?
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In-depth knowledge of rainfall regimes and soil types, applied to local ecological conditions and water needs.
83. What are guls and kuls, and where are they found?
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Diversion channels built for agriculture in hill and mountainous regions, particularly the Western Himalayas.
84. What did people develop in the flood plains of Bengal?
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Inundation channels to irrigate their fields.
85. What are khadins and johads?
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Agricultural fields converted into rain fed storage structures in arid and semi-arid regions, letting water stand and moisten the soil. Khadins are in Jaisalmer and johads in other parts of Rajasthan.
86. In which three places of Rajasthan did almost every house have a tanka?
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Bikaner, Phalodi and Barmer.
87. How large could a tanka be?
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Room-sized. A household at Phalodi kept one measuring 6.1 metres deep by 4.27 long and 2.44 wide.
88. How is a tanka connected to the house?
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It is built inside the main house or the courtyard and connected through a pipe to the sloping roofs.
89. Why is the first spell of rain not collected?
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Because it cleans the roofs and the pipes. Rainwater from the subsequent showers is then collected.
90. How long can water be kept in a tanka, and why does that matter?
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Until the next rainfall, which makes it a thoroughly dependable supply of drinking water once every other source have dried up, particularly in summer.
91. What is palar pani?
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Rainwater, as it is commonly called in these parts, considered the purest form of natural water.
92. Why did some houses build underground rooms next to the tanka?
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To beat the summer heat, since the tanka kept the room cool.
93. Why is rooftop rainwater harvesting declining in western Rajasthan?
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Because plenty of water is available from the perennial Indira Gandhi Canal.
94. Why do some houses there still keep their tankas?
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Because they do not like the taste of tap water.
95. Which state was the first to make rooftop rainwater harvesting compulsory?
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Tamil Nadu, for all houses across the state, with legal provisions to punish defaulters.
96. Why is rooftop harvesting so common in Shillong?
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Because the city faces acute shortage of water, even though Cherapunjee and Mawsynram, 55 km away, receive the highest rainfall in the world.
97. What share of a Shillong household's water comes from rooftop harvesting?
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Nearly 15 to 25 per cent of the total requirement.
98. Describe rainwater harvesting in Gendathur.
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In this remote village in Mysuru, Karnataka, nearly 200 households have installed rooftop systems. With 1,000 mm of annual precipitation, 80 per cent collection efficiency and about 10 fillings, each house can collect about 50,000 litres a year, and the village is described as rich in rainwater.
99. Describe the steps of the modern rooftop recharge system.
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Rooftop water is collected through a PVC pipe, filtered using sand and bricks, taken by underground pipe to a sump for immediate use, and the excess is led from the sump to a well, which recharges the underground for later use.
100. Describe the bamboo drip irrigation system of Meghalaya.
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A 200-year-old system tapping stream and spring water through bamboo pipes. Perennial springs on hilltops are diverted downhill by gravity; about 18 to 20 litres enters the system, is carried over hundreds of metres, and arrives as 20 to 80 drops per minute at the plant, with flow controlled by moving the pipes.
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