CBSE Class 10 Geography Chapter-3 Water Resources – Free PDF Download
Free PDF download of Important Questions with Answers for CBSE Class 10 Geography Chapter 3 – Water Resources prepared by expert Geography teachers from latest edition of CBSE(NCERT) books only by CoolGyan to score more marks in CBSE board examination.
CBSE Class 10 Geography Chapter-3 Water Resources Important Questions
CBSE Class 10 Geography Important Questions Chapter 3 – Water Resources
5 Mark Questions
1. Water is available in abundance in India ever then scarcity of water is experienced in major parts of the country. Explain.
Ans. a. India receives 114 cm rainfall annually and it is far less than Israel, which receives only 25 cm rainfall annually.
b. Israel does not face the problem of water scarcity, but our country is facing this problem every year. The reason is that we are unable to manage and conserve rainwater.
c. The availability of water resources varies over space and time, mainly due to the variations in seasonal and annual precipitation, but water scarcity is most cases is caused by over exploitation, excessive use and unequal access to water among different social groups.
d. Once chirrapunji was famous because it received the highest rainfall in world. Today this area faces an acute water shortage. This is a consequence of extensive deforestation and no efforts toward rainwater harvesting.
2. How intensive industrialization and urbanization have passed a great pressure on existing fresh water resources in India? Explain with two examples for each.
Ans. a. Post independent India witnessed intensive industrialization and urbanization.
b. The ever increasing number of industries has made matters worse by creating pressure on existing freshwater resources. Industries apart from being heavy users of water also require power to run them.
c. Much of this energy comes from hydroelectric power.
d. Multiplying urban centers with large and dense populations and urban lifestyles have not only added to water and energy requirement but have further aggravated the problem.
e. If we look into the housing societies or colonies in the cities, you would find that most of these have their own groundwater pumping devices to meet their water needs. Not surprisingly we find that fragile water resources are being over-exploited and have caused their depletion in several of these cities.
3. Give any five examples of traditional water harvesting system prevalent in various parts of India.
Ans. a. In hill and mountainous regions, people built diversion channels like the ‘guls’ or ‘kuls’ of the western Himalayas for agriculture.
b. ‘Rooftop rain water harvesting’ was commonly practiced to store drinking water, particularly in Rajasthan.
c. In the flood plains of Bengal, people developed inundation channels to irrigate their fields.
d. In arid and semi arid regions, agricultural fields were converted into rain fed storage structures that allowed the water to stand and moisten the soil like the ‘khadans in jaisalmer and ‘Johads’ in other parts of Rajasthan.
e. In Meghalaya, a 200 years old system of tapping stream and spring water by using bamboo pipes is prevalent.
4. What is the ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’? Why was it organized? What are the issues raised by this movement?
Ans. a. Narmada Bachao Andolan is prominent social movement to acquire access and control natural resources endowed to the local people.
b. The activities of the Narmada Bachao Andolan in the late 1980s and 1990s brought worldwide attention to the plight of the people from the area of Sardar Sarovar Dam across the Narmada River who is spread over the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
c. Narmada Bachao Andolan is a non Government Organisation that mobilized tribal people, farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against Sardar Sarovar Dam.
d. It originally focused on the environmental issues related to trees that would be submerged under the dam water.
e. Recently it has refocused the aim to enable poor citizens, especially the oustees to get full rehabilitation facilities from the government.
5. Write a short note on Hydraulic structures of ancient India.
Ans. a. In the first centuray b.c., Sringaverapura near Allahabad had sophisticated water harvesting system channeling the flood water of the river Ganga.
b. During the time of Chandragupta Maurya, dams, lakes and irrigation systems were extensively built.
c. Evidences of sophisticated irrigation works have also been found in Kalinga (Odisha), Nagarjunakonda (Andhra Pradesh), Bennur (Karnataka), Kohlapur (maharashtra), etc.
d. In the 11th centuray, Bhopal Lake, one of the largest artificial lakes of its time was built.
e. In the 14th century the tank in Hauz Khas, Delhi was constructed by Iltutmish for supplying water to Siri Fort Area.
6. Discuss how rainwater harvesting in semi-arid regions of Rajasthan is carried out.
Ans. a. Rooftop rain water harvesting is commonly practiced to store water.
b. In Arid and semi- arid regions, agricultural fields were converted into rain-fed storage structures that allowed the water to stand and moisten the soil like the khadins in Jaisalmer and Johads in other parts of Rajasthan.
c. In the semi arid and arid regions of Rajasthan, particularly in Bekaner, Phalodi and Barmer, almost all the houses traditionally had underground tanks or tankas for storing were.
d. In Western Rajasthan, the practice of roof top rainwater harvesting is on the decline as plenty of water is availability due to the perennial Rajasthan Canal, though some houses still maintain the tankas since they do not like the taste of tap water.
7. Describe how modern adaptation of traditional rainwater harvesting methods is being carried out to conserve and store water?
Ans. a. Rooftop rainwater is collected through a pipe into the underground tanks. Rooftop rainwater harvesting is practiced in Shillong and Meghalaya where nearly 15 to 25 percent of actual water requirement is met from rooftop water harvesting.
b. In Many parts of rural and urban India, rooftop rainwater harvesting is successfully adopted to conserve and store water.
c. In Gandathur a village in Karnataka and nearly 200 households has installed this system. From 20 houses, the net amount of rainwater harvested amounts to 1, 00,000 liters annually.
d. In Meghalaya, Bamboo drip is practiced to transport stream and spring water by using Bamboo pipes.
e. Several low cost techniques are now available to recharge groundwater and harvest the rainwater like, construction of proclamation ponds, refilling of dug wells and collection of rainwater and storing it in tanks or ground.
8. What is multi-purpose river valley project? State any four objectives of multi-purpose river valley projects.
Ans. Multipurpose river valley projects are meant to tackle various problems associated with river valleys in an integrated manner. Following are the objectives of Multi-purpose river valley projects:
a. To control floods.
b. Check soil erosion.
c. Generate electricity
d. Provide inland navigation
e. Encourage tourism and recreation
f. Conservation of water.
9. In recent years, multipurpose projects and large dams have come under great scrutiny and opposition. Explain why.
Ans. a. Some social movements have opposed such large dams due to fact that local communities have been displaced and rooted out of their original settlement areas.
b. Dames have also been a potent cause in creating conflicts between states, wanting to avail benefits from the same water resources.
c. Sedimentation in the reservoir gas caused floods. These dams were constructed to control floods.
d. These dames caused land degradation. The flood plains were deprived of silt which is natural fertilizer.
e. These dams caused water borne disease, pest and pollution of water due to excessive use.
10. Three –fourths of the world is covered with water and water is a renewable resources. Yet many countries and regions around the globe suffer from water scarcity. Explain.
Ans. We know that three-fourth of the earth’s surface is covered with water, but only a small proportion of its accounts for freshwater that can be put to use. This freshwater mainly obtained from surface run off and ground water that is continually being renewed and recharged through the hydrological cycle ensuring that water is a renewable resource. 96.5 percent of the total volume of world’s water is estimated to exist as oceans and only 2.5 per cent as fresh water. Nearly 70% of this fresh water occurs as ice sheets and glaciers in Antarctica, Greenland and the mountainous regions of the world, while a little less than 30 percent is stored as groundwater in world’s aquifers.
