Making groundwater visible

News: The theme of this year’s World Water Day (March 22) was ‘Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible’.

Benefits of groundwater:

Groundwater plays an important role in water and sanitation systems, agriculture, industry, ecosystems, and climate change adaptation, as it:

1. Reduces the risk of temporary water shortages especially in arid and semiarid regions.
2. Has high storage capacity.
3. Is more resilient to the effects of climate change than surface water.

Despite these benefits, its value has not been recognised in policy making.

Issues associated with extraction of groundwater

India is among the largest users of groundwater in the world. Almost 89% of the groundwater extracted is used for irrigation and the rest for domestic (9%) and industrial use (2%).

According to the Central Ground Water Board, the annual groundwater withdrawal is considered to be safe when the extraction rate is limited below 70% of the annual replenishable recharge. However, this mark has been crossed by various states such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry.

Quality of groundwater is also a concern. Fluoride, iron, salinity, nitrate, and arsenic contamination are major problems.

Changing approach:

As the Mihir Shah Committee (2016) proposed:

1. The Central Water Commission and the Central Ground Water Board could be united and a national water framework to be developed.
2. Local level plans are required to include rainwater, surface water, soil water, groundwater.
3. Linking cropping patterns and crop intensity with groundwater availability, aquifer type.
4. Re-articulation of the legal framework: At present, there is an energy subsidy for groundwater extraction with little regulation and landowner has exclusive right to groundwater available in their property. This encourages farmers to withdraw ground water at will.

Way Forward

The new framework for groundwater warrants technical, economic, legal and governance remediation with space for active public participation. It will maintain groundwater balance at village/ watershed level.

Source: The post is created based on the article “Making groundwater visible” published in The Hindu on 04th April 2022.