Ways and Concepts of Water Management - Assignment Example

Institution: Name: Affiliate Institution: Water Management Q 1a) It is the mandate of all individuals to take good care of the environment in which we live. The environment which consists of all that surrounds us may it be water, the soil, the air we breathe, the animals and all the vegetation should be taken care of at all times ensuring a healthy human life. According to Ventura County Water Management Project & United States (1981), pollution that mostly caused by human activities should be strongly discouraged by the state by enforcing laws that strictly discourages environmental pollution. Some of the common pollution to the natural materials are; water pollution, air pollution, soil pollution and many other types of pollution. These pollutions have negative impacts to human health, for example, there are diseases that are associated with breathing difficulties that occur as a result of air pollution. There are water borne diseases that occur as a result of water pollution. There are adverse impacts on the environment as well. For instance, the acidic rains that occur as a result of air pollution; this affects the vegetation greatly and also the beautiful manmade structures such as buildings. There are negative impacts to the marine life. For example water, pollution resulting from water spill causes suffocation to marine life since there is little oxygen that diffuses into the water. The oils also clog the breathing systems of these marine lives, which also includes the aquatic plants. Living in a healthy environment would greatly influence a healthy life for the society. The aquatic creatures are also affected by human activities that encourage aquatic pollution. In short, the human being should take care of the environment to avoid some of the negative impacts that occur from adverse weather and climatic conditions. Wild human conflict may also be experienced as the wild animals seek for water and hiding areas. Water is one of the primary basic resources that sustain life. Water management should be endowed by every single individual to ensure that water is well utilized without wastage or polluting it. Bonell, Hufschmidt & Gladwell (1993) argued that the pollution of this basic resource occurs from several aspects such as industrial emission into rivers and other water bodies, agricultural activities and many other factors. Lincoln dairy sets a compliance that the discharges that the firm will discharge have to meet the following conditions, the liquid discharges will have to be in the form of diluted discharges. The farm will dilute it with wash down water. There be also solid effluents that will also be discharged. The farm also sets a piece of land aside to discharge its effluent. This ensures that the discharges are only discharged within the area that is in consent. To ensure the farm conforms with the condition that there is pivot discharge of effluents the farm shall ensure that only spray irrigation system discharges the dilute discharge. Since the system used in the irrigation system is the same used for the distribution of water, at the outlet of the backflow pump preventer has to be manufactured and installed to the system ensuring that, no contaminant will flow to the borehole as the diluted discharge is being distributed. The backflow preventer is also expected to be tested by qualified personnel before installation and also be tested annually after the installation. This was not operational on the farm since the farm’s discharge system is not in connection to that of the groundwater hydraulically. The farm also set a condition of the depth applicable for the discharge and the irrigation water’s time limit in which it should be applied. From the two set areas A and B the depth for A, the depth should not exceed a depth of 24 millimeters per day. For the second area B, should not exceed a depth of 10 millimeters. There should not be any runoff that occurs within the boundary. The farm complied with the consent, and there was no runoff occurred, and the depth was also well observed. At the pivot, the farm was to ensure that no ponding would occur by strictly adhering to the application of the depth of the discharge. Moreover, the irrigation water applied. The farm was able to achieve this condition since there was no effluent ponding at the pivot. The will be a proper management of the discharge; this will ensure that the spray-drift that may arise from the discharge application and the aerosols that may also rise are contained within the areas set for discharging the effluent. The farm complied by this consent since there was zero effluent that discharged over the boundary (Carrey, 2011). Contaminants in the treatment system should not produce an odor that may have negative impacts to the surroundings. The effect should not go the boundary of the set area. The farm complied with the consent; beyond the property boundary, no odor was noted. Within one month the plan by the management should be submitted to the Canterbury regional council. Hunt, (2004) argued that the plan by the management will set out the operation of the activities authorized by the consent; this will enable it to comply with the consent. In the plan also included are the detailed contingency measures in case of harsh weather, procedures of maintenance and the daily operations, set the time as to when the equipment maintenance will be done and finally it gives the emergency contacts. In case there are changes in the operations, the management plan has to be updated and also the changes supplied by the Canterbury Regional Council, Attention: RMA Compliance and Enforcement Manager. The management plan copy and a copy of resource consent have to be available at all times within the dairy shed positioned in a prominent place. The farm complied with the consent since there are copies for the two shed available. During the last five working days of either the following months March, June or November the Canterbury regional council may review the consent to; deal with any adverse effect which might have risen within the environment as a result of the exercises of this consent. It may also review to reduce the effects on the environment (Thomas, 2009). The may review the consent once per year. In the farm has not been monitored it also have no intention to review its consent soon. Q 2b) There are several policies that are set to curb the effects of water pollution and also to ensure proper effluent disposal within the fields. To avoid much effluent accumulation in the sheds, the animals should not stay in the daily shed for a long time. This will ensure that the effluents are dropped from a particular area, and they will not overspread. Other policies that have been set are the policies that will enhance; water measuring and environmental flows, these policies that require that the citizens are involved in the process of ensuring that water is well maintained and ensure that there is high water quality. This will press the farmers to handle the effluents with much care and to comply with the agreement that the government set. The government also prioritization of water management practices. According to Healey, (2009) it was to ensure that water had to contribute to the integrity of the environment and also ensure water contributed to a positive economic growth. This calls the farmer to take good care of the water bodies, and this resulted to farmers to change their ways of handling environmental affairs. The was also an initiative that demanded that there would be an introduction of a collaborative forum of governance that was aiming at the development of a strategy that would enhance long-term strategies, outcome sharing, and goal achievement in the water management policy. This would call for a combined effort from all the stakeholders from the Ministry of agriculture and the ministry of environment to the achievement of the set strategy. According to Faruqui, Biswas, & Binothe (2001), farmers would be enlightened through the agricultural seminar and forums on the importance of water management. The state also set an accurate stock allocation nationally. The state would ensure that it gives a range of allocation that would d ensure that no overstocking. This being implemented in the state will ensure that the farmers are in a position to keep the right holding capacity of animals ensuring that they will be in a position to manage the effluents from the animals and also ensure that the stock does not access the water bodies or the water paths. The state also introduces some supportive measure that will improve the outcomes of the environments on the issues that are mostly concerned with the impacts that the dilute discharges have on the water bodies. It also looks for the best way in which it would involve the new initiatives that would include training to the water users and also the introduced level of technology. The training will ensure that the water users are in apposition to maintain water quantity and quality limits. The farmers will be required to spend water sparingly and avoid the circumstance that would lead to water wastage. The training will also enlighten the farmers on the risks that are associated with poor effluent management and the effect of pounding of the effluents. The initiative to introduce water infrastructure also promoted to the changes in the practices of the farmer (Crouch, 1993). Water infrastructure has a major role in the process of water treatment, water distribution, water storage, and supply, water drainage, flood control, and the protection of the quality of water as well as the public health. The introduction of the water infrastructure ensured that the farmers are in a position to efficiently use the available water and also ensures that the water is maintained at high quality and also at a high quantity. The farmers due to this initiative they had to appreciate by an endowment of the infrastructural practices. The farmers had to use the initiative to manage water and also to handle the effluents properly to avoid them being drained into the water bodies; they aimed at the maintenance of quality water. The state also set a strategic plan that aims at communication of the importance of water management both at the urban and at the rural area. The state also views the importance of focusing on the rural areas. The reason for highlighting the rural region is that agricultural activities such as irrigation are centered in the rural areas. These areas are the areas that are, mostly affected by the impacts of the effects of agricultural activities on the quality of water. This initiative would greatly influence the farmers to practice agricultural practices that would fairly have positive impacts on water. The farmers will have to introduce some the best farming practices and forego the poor farming methods. Q 3 c) The effluents need to be handled carefully within the field to avoid water pollution within the environment. The state ensures that there is fresh water available for its citizens. However, this is only achievable if the citizens comply with the set agreement. Several management practices will help the farmers to be in a position to comply with the consent. To start with, the farmers should the farmers should not only spread their effluents safely but also spread these effluents where it cannot get into contact with water bodies. It should be spread away from the waterways. If the farmers are in a position to prevent the effluents from getting to the waterways, water pollution will be manageable. Next, is that farmers should not apply effluents to the soil at an excessive rate. The effluent should be applied to 6the soil at an appropriate rate and also when the soil is deficient. When the soil has enough nutrients the effluent should be properly stored; this means that a farmer should have enough storage for his effluents to be flexible and to ensure that there is no linkage of the effluent to water bodies or out of the property border. The farmers need to be keen on the rainwater diversions. Diverting the surface runoff to the right direction is a very important management practice to ensure that the surface runoff does not come into contact with the effluents. The farmer should, therefore, check the direction of the diversion of rainwater always before milking and also after milking. It is also important that the farmer to strictly avoid ponding. This is achievable by the farmer clearly having clear assessment knowledge on the soil moisture content and the water table before applying the effluents. Farmers should ensure that the water table is low and also ensure that the soil moisture is low enough to apply effluents and pounding will not occur. Should the soil be wet and the water table be high it means that pounding will have to occur. There are also maintenance practices to the device and machinery. The first maintenance practice is to ensure that the irrigator has enough tire pressure. If the pressure is low, it means that the effluent will not be supplied to he intended fields. The farmer should ensure that the irrigator and the pipes have not linkages to avoid the effluents from being discharged to the unintended regions and to spill along the waterways. The other important practice is to ensure that the pumps can work efficiently and also they are economical in the operation. The farmer should, therefore, ensure that the pumps have their nozzles unblocked. Water Management Review Committee & Alberta (1995) argued that pumps with blocked nozzles are not economical and are also not efficient in the operation. They should, therefore, be checked regularly and also replace the damaged nozzles. The farmer should ensure that the water being flush is clean to avoid blockage of the nozzles. The farmers in the current Ecan’s Canterbury Lane have also been subjected to various changes that they are supposed to comply with. The farmers are strictly required to ensure that there is a reduced nutrient loss. The farmers are entitled to ensure that nutrients are well utilized and that nitrogen loss rate by 2022 should be less those 15 kilograms per hectare per year. According to Healey (2009), the stock is also prohibited from accessing the drains. This is because the policy by the Waihora keenly recognizes the purposes of the drains in contributing to sediment, nutrient and also microbial contaminants to the water paths and the water bodies. There is a dry land nitrogen allocation that will serve as a future irrigation scheme. This ensures that the land will have enough nitrogen for the plant growth in the irrigation scheme. In the farm, there should be practices that should be done either annually or semi-annually to ensure that the farmers are in a position to meet the requirement of the compliance. First, the farmer should ensure that there is soil analysis done on the farm by experts. The importance of analyzing the soil is to ensure that the amount if nutrient that the farmer will apply in the farm is the right proportion (Ontario, 1994). This ensures that there is enough effluent applied in the farm without excess application to the farm. There is also an importance of analyzing the stored effluent. By analyzing the effluents stored, this will ensure that the farmers will be in a position to understand the amount of effluent to apply within the pasture land. This analysis is very important in that the level of nutrients will determine the amount of water into applied in the effluent. According to Oregon, (2014), the storage pond should also be emptied annually. This pond could be having some weeds that could be growing on the surfaces. Such weeds should be either uprooted of sprayed to ensure that the weeds are eliminated. The weeds growing in the storage pond could act as host for pests and diseases which can spread to the pasture fields. There can also be a mass growth of the weeds since there are many nutrients around that pond. The farmers should be in a position to determine the level of discharge that can supply in the field. The policy is that the farmer should not apply more than 25m per application. For this practice to be successive also, the farmer is also required to be in a position to keep records of the paddocks in which the irrigation has been done. Repetition of irrigation in the same paddock may lead to excessive loss of nutrients and also, may lead to ponding to occur within those paddocks. According to Alberta, Alberta & Penner (1988), keeping of records also helps the farmer not to repeat the process again sooner before the nutrients are fully utilized within the fields by the pastures. Excessive nutrients may be leached especially during heavy rains and are likely to be drained into the waterways and finally to the water bodies. All these initiatives by the government policies on the importance of water management in the NZ contributed positively to the changes by the farmers in the agricultural practices. Some of these reforms could not be achieved with the poor farming practice being carried out (Figuères, Rockström, & Tortajada, 2003). The farmers, therefore, had to change their farming styles in order to comply with the set consent and to meet the goals set by the policy makers. Irrigation being one of the major farming activities had to be controlled effectively in order to ensure that the water quality is maintained and also minimize the water wastage in the area (Wijk, Wesseling, & Commission of the European Communities, 1986). There was also a need to change the agricultural practices in order to prevent nutrient loss especially to the water bodies that would lead to eutrophication effect. This is a major water pollution effect, caused by enrichment of water bodies with nutrients. The nutrients could be from the agricultural fertilizers or even from the effluents. References Alberta, Alberta, Penner and Associates Ltd., Northwest Hydraulic Consultants Ltd. Associates Ltd., & Soil Management Services. (1988). [Sub-basin water management plan study in northwestern Alberta: Water management unit 7E]. Edmonton: Alberta Environment, Planning Division. Australia. (1999). Water management. Canberra: Environment Australia. Bonell, M., Hufschmidt, M. 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