Roots Of Water Scarcity

Contrary to popular belief, afforestation programmes that blindly plant trees in the hope of conserving water only end up consuming more water

- Akshit Sangomla

Nature-based solutions like planting of trees and restoration of forests are often touted as the panacea for water conservation. This is because forested watersheds—lands covered by forests which drain all the water flowing through them into waterbodies like rivers or lakes—provide a whopping 75 per cent of the world’s accessible freshwater resources. But many organisations implementing this crucial nature-based solution have been unable to differentiate between restoration of forests and planting trees.

For instance, in India, afforestation was one of the interventions of the Union government’s Jal Shakti Abhiyan, launched in July 2019, to make the country’s most water-stressed districts water secure. Under this programme, district administrations were encouraged to undertake planting of trees in a big way. The enthusiastic local authorities reported a staggering number of afforestation activities which turned out to be fudged data, as admitted by district officials as well as a senior official in the Jal Shakti ministry. Even if these numbers were real, simply planting trees will not conserve water. In fact, trees can suck up water and release it through evapotranspiration—water lost by trees to the atmosphere through tiny openings on the underside of their leaves known as stomata.

INCORRECT ASSUMPTION