Bera Amit, Das Shubhamita, Pani Amartya, Bera Biswajit, Shit Pravat Kumar
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal 711103 India.
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302 India.
Sustain Water Resour Manag. 2022;8(3):78. doi: 10.1007/s40899-022-00672-7. Epub 2022 Apr 27.
The fatal novel COVID-19 creates precarious threats to humans through speedy diffusion. This virus not only disrupts human health but also makes multidirectional loss and slowdown of modern earth. Almost all countries strictly imposed lockdown and social distancing norms to prevent the infection of COVID-19 virus. In almost all parts of the world, people are using more water for washing, cleaning, bathing and hand washing practices. As a result, per capita water demand along with expenditure have been significantly increased. The principal objective of this study is to evaluate the household level water consumption status and to improve the water security with management for future. The current study has been conducted among the general population of India to assess household level water consumption through internet E-Surveys Google form from August 18 to September 8, 2020. Around 1850 respondents have sent their comments from different sites (rural and urban areas in various climatic regions) of Indian subcontinent. The results show the tremendous increase of water usage along with electrical consumption and expenditure during COVID-19 pandemic situation. Our results revels that 10%, 15% and 17% of higher water consumption per day in rural, urban and peri-urban residential respectively. We hypothesize that the reasons for the increasing water demand and household consumption per day may be found in changed behavioral routines through bathing, washing clothes, and hand washing practices. This web-based study also suggests that few alternative and dependable management techniques i.e. rain water harvesting can be installed to fight the crisis and for the sustainable future. Subsequently, research and development are highly required for long-term management of water resources or reuse of water.
致命的新型冠状病毒肺炎通过快速传播对人类构成了不稳定的威胁。这种病毒不仅扰乱人类健康，还造成现代社会多方面的损失并使其发展放缓。几乎所有国家都严格实施封锁和社交距离规范，以防止新冠病毒感染。在世界几乎所有地区，人们在洗漱、清洁、沐浴和洗手时用水量增加。因此，人均用水量和支出都大幅增加。本研究的主要目的是评估家庭层面的用水状况，并通过管理改善未来的水安全。本研究通过互联网电子调查谷歌表单，于2020年8月18日至9月8日在印度普通人群中进行，以评估家庭层面的用水量。约1850名受访者从印度次大陆不同地点（不同气候区域的农村和城市地区）发送了他们的意见。结果显示，在新冠疫情期间，用水量以及电力消耗和支出都大幅增加。我们的结果表明，农村、城市和城郊居民区每天的用水量分别增加了10%、15%和17%。我们推测，每日用水需求和家庭用水量增加的原因可能在于沐浴、洗衣服和洗手习惯等行为模式的改变。这项基于网络的研究还表明，可以安装一些替代且可靠的管理技术，即雨水收集，以应对危机并实现可持续的未来。随后，水资源的长期管理或水的再利用迫切需要研发。
