WORLD VIDE MOST FAMOUS WATER STORAGE ALL RESARVAIRE AND WATER RESOUECES LAWS IN LISTS

WORLD VIDE MOST FAMOUS WATER STORAGE ALL RESARVAIRE AND WATER RESOUECES LAWS IN LISTS

Introduction

Types

Groundwater

Soil moisture

Wetlands

Ponds and tanks

Dams and reservoirs

Planting basins

Contamination

Common factors

Decontamination

Water resources

WATER RESOUECES LAW

Water storage is a broad term referring to storage of both potable water for consumption, and non potable water for use in agriculture. In both developing countries and some developed countries found in tropical climates, there is a need to store potable drinking water during the dry season. In agriculture water storage, water is stored for later use in natural water sources, such as groundwater aquifers, soil water, natural wetlands, and small artificial ponds, tanks and reservoirs behind major dams. Storing water invites a host of potential issues regardless of that water's intended purpose, including contamination through organic and inorganic means.^[1]

Types

Groundwater

Groundwater is located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. There are two broad types of aquifers: An unconfined aquifer is where the surface is not restricted by impervious rocks, so the water table is at atmospheric pressure. In a confined aquifer, the upper surface of water is overlain by a layer of impervious rock, so the groundwater is stored under pressure.^[2]

Aquifers receive water through two ways, one from precipitation that flows through the unsaturated zone of the soil profile, and two from lakes and rivers.^[2] When a water table reaches capacity, or all soil is completely saturated, the water table meets the surface of the ground where water discharge in the forms of springs or seeps.^[2]

It is also possible to artificially recharge aquifers (using wells), for example through the use of Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR).

Soil moisture

Groundwater is stored in two zones, one being the saturated zone, or Aquifer, the other is the pore space of unsaturated soil immediately below the ground surface. Soil moisture is the water held between soil particles in the root zone (rhizosphere) of plants, generally in the top 200 cm of soil. Water storage in the soil profile is extremely important for agriculture, especially in locations that rely on rainfall for cultivating plants. For example, in Africa rain-fed agriculture accounts for 95% of farmed land.^[3]

Wetlands

Wetlands span the surface/sub-surface interface, storing water at various times as groundwater, soil moisture and surface water. They are vital ecosystems that support wildlife and perform valuable ecosystem services, such as flood protection and water cleansing. They also provide livelihoods for millions of people who live within and around them. For example, the Inner Niger River Delta in the Western Sahel zone supports more than a million people who make their living as fishermen, cattle breeders or farmers, using the annual rise and fall of the river waters and its floodplains.^[4]

Wetlands are basically sponges that capture and slowly release large amounts of rain, snowmelt, groundwater and floodwater. Trees and other wetlands vegetation slow the speed of flood water and more evenly distribute it across the wetland. The combination of increased water storage and flood water hindrances lower flood heights and reduce erosion.^[5]

Ponds and tanks

Detention basins and water tanks can be defined as community-built and household water stores, filled by rainwater, groundwater infiltration or surface runoff. They are usually open, and therefore exposed to high levels of evaporation. They can be a great help to farmers in helping them overcome dry spells. However, they can promote vector-borne diseases such as malaria or schistosomiasis.^[6]

Detention basins are designed for temporary capture of flood waters and do not allow for permanent pooling of water and therefore do not make viable or reliable sources of water storage.^[7] Retention basins are similar to detention basins for flood control management, but are built for permanent pooling to control sediment and pollutants in the flood water.^[8]

Dams and reservoirs

In the past, large dams have often been the focus of water storage efforts. Many large dams and their reservoirs have brought significant social and economic benefits. For example, Egypt's Aswan High Dam, built in the 1960s, has protected the nation from drought and floods and supplies water used to irrigate some 15 million hectares. However, dams can also have great negative impacts. Because sediment is trapped by the Aswan High Dam, the Nile no longer delivers nutrients in large quantities to the floodplain. This has reduced soil fertility and increased the need for fertilizer.^[9] Water stored in dams and reservoirs can be treated for drinking water, but in the past due to poor taxing and high water prices in the US, water supply dams are unable to reach their intended levels of operation.^[10] Due to the increased surface area of water that dams create, huge amounts of water is lost to evaporation, much more so than what would have been lost from the river that flowed in its place.^[10]

Planting basins

Rainfed agriculture constitutes 80% of global agriculture. Many of the 852 million poor people in the world live in parts of Asia and Africa that depend on rainfall to cultivate food crops. As the global population swells, more food will be needed, but climate variability is likely to make farming more difficult. A range of water stores could help farmers overcome dry spells that would otherwise cause their crops to fail. Field studies have shown the effectiveness of small-scale water storage. For example, using small planting basins to 'harvest' water in Zimbabwe have been shown to boost maize yields, whether rainfall is abundant or scarce. In Niger, they have led to three or fourfold increases in millet yields.^[11]

Contamination

As of 2010, it was reported that nearly half of the global population depends on in-home water storage due to a lack of adequate water supply networks.^[12] Many of the in-home solutions have improvised from available materials. It has been suggested that the lack of proper tools and equipment for construction, leads to a system more likely to contain breaches, making them more susceptible to contamination from the environment and users.^[12]

Common factors

Roofing Materials:^[13] In certain parts of the world uncoated lead flashing is used as a roofing material. Researchers found on-site water storage of rainwater was more acidic, and contained elevated levels of heavy metals in a study conducted in Australia from 2005–2006.^[13]
Hand-washing: When water is stored in tanks for consumption hand-washing can become a factor if the tank lacks a proper faucet system, or if there is a lack of education on the risks posed by using hands for water consumption. It was found in a 2009 study that water tanks in Tanzania contained 140-180% more fecal indicator bacteria than the water they were supplied with.^[12]
Fertilizer Runoff ^[14]

Common risks

Fluorosis
Arsenic Poisoning
Bacteria and other organic contaminants

Decontamination

In the event that a water tank or tanker is contaminated, the following steps should be taken to reclaim the tank or tanker, if it is structurally intact. Additionally, it is recommended that tanks in continuous use are cleaned every five years, and for seasonal use, annually.^[15]

Clean: Drain the tank(er) of any remaining fluid, making sure to capture any hazardous fluid to be properly disposed of. Then scrub the inside of the tank with a detergent, and hot water mixture.^[16]
Disinfect: Fill the tank a quarter full with clean water. Sprinkle 80 grams of granular high-strength calcium hypochlorite (HSCH) into the tank for every 1000 litres total capacity of the tank. Fill the tank completely with clean water, close the lid and leave to stand for 24 hours.^[16]
Flush: After the chlorine solution has sat in the tank for 24 hours, flush out/empty the storage tank. Do not drain the tank into a septic system or adjacent surface water body. Continue flushing until the waste water is clear and no chlorine odor is detected.^[15]
Test: Once the storage tank has been thoroughly flushed, test for free chlorine residual to ensure it is non-detectable. Once a non-detectable chlorine residual has been obtained, collect operational & maintenance (O&M) total coliform bacteria water samples.^[15]

If the test results are negative for bacteria, the drinking water is considered safe to use and drink.

Waters subject to regulation

Water is ubiquitous and does not respect political boundaries. Water resources laws may apply to any portion of the hydrosphere over which claims may be made to appropriate or maintain the water to serve some purpose. Such waters include, but are not limited to:

Surface waters—lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, and wetlands;
Surface runoff—generally water that flows across the land from rain, floodwaters, and snowmelt before those waters reach watercourses, lakes, wetlands, or oceans;
Groundwater—particularly water present in aquifers.

History

The history of people's relation to water illustrates varied approaches to the management of water resources. "Lipit Ishtar and Ur Nammu both contain water provisions, pre-date Hammurabi by at least 250 years, and clearly provide the normative underpinnings on which the Hammurabi Code was constructed."^{[citation needed]} The Code of Hammurabi was one of the earliest written laws to deal with water issues, and this code included the administration of water use. At the time the code was written in ancient Mesopotamia, the civilizations in the surrounding lands were dependent on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to survive. As a result, the leaders needed to develop intricate canal and irrigation systems to sustain their needs for the water.^[2] The code was developed about 3,800 years ago by King Hammurabi of Babylonia.^[3]

Difficulties of water rights

Water is uniquely difficult to regulate, because laws are designed mainly for land. Water is mobile, its supply varies by year, season, and location, and it can be used simultaneously by many entities.^[4] As with property law, water rights can be described as a "bundle of sticks" containing multiple, separable activities that can have varying levels of regulation. For instance, some uses of water divert it from its natural course but return most or all of it (e.g. hydroelectric plants), while others consume much of what they take (ice, agriculture), and still others use water without diverting it at all (e.g. boating). Each type of activity has its own needs and can in theory be regulated separately. There are several types of conflict likely to arise: absolute shortages; shortages in a particular time or place, diversions of water that reduce the flow available to others, pollutants or other changes (such as temperature or turbidity) that render water unfit for others' use, and the need to maintain "in-stream flows" of water to protect the natural ecosystem.

One theory of history, put forward in Karl August Wittfogel's book Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power, holds that many empires were organized around a central authority that controlled a population through monopolizing the water supply. Such a hydraulic empire creates the potential for despotism, and serves as a cautionary tale for designing water regulations.

Water law involves controversy in some parts of the world where a growing population faces increasing competition over a limited natural supply. Disputes over rivers, lakes and underground aquifers cross national borders.^[5] Although water law is still regulated mainly by individual countries, there are international sets of proposed rules such as the Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers and the Hague Declaration on Water Security in the 21st Century.

Long-term issues in water law include the possible effects of global warming on rainfall patterns and evaporation; the availability and cost of desalination technology; the control of pollution; and the growth of aquaculture.

Legal models

The legal right to use a designated water supply is known as a water right. There are two major models used for water rights. The first is riparian rights, where the owner of the adjacent land has the right to the water in the body next to it. The other major model is the prior appropriations model, the first party to make use of a water supply has the first rights to it, regardless of whether the property is near the water source.^[6] Riparian systems are generally more common in areas where water is plentiful, while appropriations systems are more common in dry climates. As water resource law is complex, many areas have a combination of the two models.

Water law by country

International law

The right to use water to satisfy basic human needs for personal and domestic uses has been protected under international human rights law. When incorporated in national legal frameworks, this right is articulated to other water rights within the broader body of water law. The human right to water has been recognized in international law through a wide range of international documents, including international human rights treaties, declarations and other standards. Additionally, the United Nations passed a resolution stating that the member states "recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights."^[7]

The human right to water places the main responsibilities upon governments to ensure that people can enjoy "sufficient, safe, accessible and affordable water, without discrimination". Most especially, governments are expected to take reasonable steps to avoid a contaminated water supply and to ensure there are no water access distinctions amongst citizens. Today all states have at least ratified one human rights convention which explicitly or implicitly recognizes the right, and they all have signed at least one political declaration recognizing this right.

Canada

Under the Constitution Act, 1867, jurisdiction over waterways is divided between the federal and provincial governments. Federal jurisdiction is derived from the powers to regulate navigation and shipping, fisheries, and the governing of the northern territories, which has resulted in the passage of:

the Fisheries Act,
the Navigation Protection Act,
the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, and
the Oceans Act.

Provincial jurisdiction is derived from the powers over property and civil rights, matters of a local and private nature, and management of Crown lands. In Ontario, Quebec and other provinces, the beds of all navigable waters are vested in the Crown, in contrast to English law.^[8] All provincial governments also govern water quality through laws on environmental protection and drinking water, such as the Clean Water Act in Ontario.

Australia

Water law in Australia varies with each state.

In the state of New South Wales, water laws are enforced by an independent regulatory body; the Natural Resources Access Regulator.

Tasmania

The Tasmanian Water Corporation compulsorily acquired all drinking water supply infrastructure previously managed by local councils This policy was not popular with all local councillors.^[9]

Iran

Seventh program of Iranian government in 2023-22 ordered the preparing and deployment of a new the bureau of unified water resource administration system.^[10]

Water law in the United States

In the United States there are complex legal systems for allocating water rights that vary by region.^[5] These varying systems exist for both historical and geographic reasons. Water law encompasses a broad array of subjects or categories designed to provide a framework to resolve disputes and policy issues relating to water:

Public waters, including tidal waters and navigable waterways.
Other surface waters—generally water that flows across non-public land from rain, floodwaters, and snowmelt before those waters reach public watercourses.
Groundwater, sometimes called subterranean, percolating, or underground water
Public regulation of waters, including flood control, environmental regulation—state and federal, public health regulation and regulation of fisheries
Related to all of the above is interplay of public and private rights in water, which draws on aspects of eminent domain law and the federal commerce clause powers
Water project law: the highly developed law regarding the formation, operation, and finance of public and quasi-public entities which operate local public works of flood control, navigation control, irrigation, and avoidance of environmental degradation
Treaty Rights of Native Americans

The law governing these topics comes from all layers of law. Some derives from common law principles which have developed over centuries, and which evolve as the nature of disputes presented to courts change. For example, the judicial approach to landowner rights to divert surface waters has changed significantly in the last century as public attitudes about land and water have evolved. Some derives from state statutory law. Some derives from the original public grants of land to the States and from the documents of their origination. Some derives from state, federal and local regulation of waters through zoning, public health and other regulation. Non-federally recognized Indian tribes do not have water rights.

Many states in the Midwestern US, such as Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, employ a riparian system of law when it comes to water resources.^[11]

Water law in England and Wales

Private companies are obliged to publish annually a sizeable report providing a relevant amount of nationwide comparable data on costs, revenues, profits, and performance levels. An independent regulatory authority of the water industry sector analyzes private companies outcomes and sets an allowed level of return which is not fixed and incentive-based. Privatizations in the UK were driven by an historical under-investment on an asset-intensive sector.^[12]

Water law in the European Union

For countries within the European Union, water-related directives are important for water resource management and environmental and water quality standards. Key directives include the Urban Waste Water Directive 1992 ^[13] (requiring most towns and cities to treat their wastewater to specified standards), and the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC, which requires water resource plans based on river basins, including public participation based on Aarhus Convention principles. See Watertime — the international context, Section 2.

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